Future Warfare
by Mediam Noctem
Summary: Humanity has always defined themselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. The death of Jonathan Irons planted the seeds of the series of conflicts known as the Atlas Wars. As a result humanity progresses down an incredibly violent and dark path of history, until they make contact with the turians. (Mostly AU)
1. Chapter 1: Timelines Part 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Mass Effect or Call of Duty.

Prologue

**January 12th 2061**

CEO of Atlas, Jonathan Irons is reported killed in the New Baghdad conflict. It is discovered in his Will, that a Ryan Mitchell was to inherit all of Iron's riches upon his death. It is pointed out that steps were taken to change that after discovering that "Hades" corruption file was shown to Ryan, but Irons was killed before he could finalize his changes. Ryan Mitchells gives the immediate order to all active Atlas forces to stand down, which only partially succeeded. After a short, but destructive conflict, CEO Ryan Mitchells manages to recover Atlas Corporation. However, due to his lack of knowledge over administration and financial operations, he appoints two people to help lead his company. They are well known for the Biomedical Company they created in the 20th century.

**2062**

Due to the actions of Atlas Corporation, it is decided that a more active, more powerful organization is required to stop threats from possibly destroying the world ever again, one that would be the face of the world's most powerful organizations. After what could be considered a "bloodless process" a single united military organization is founded, the "Earth Alliance". Backed by the most powerful nations in the planet, the Earth Alliance would ensure that nothing would ever rise up and cause such harm to humanity ever again.

**2063**

Investigations into Atlas's activities have lead War Crime Investigators to believe that the KVA was secretly funded by Irons, this conclusion is based off the fact that: 1. With all the assets the KVA had, a highly wealthy person or organization had to have been supplying them to continue their expensive operations. 2. The clearance packages and authorization codes used to detonate nuclear power plants had to have been given by someone who had administrator access or above for important infrastructure projects. 3. "Hades" knowledge over Iron's murderer, would have required Hades to have had the clearance to get the recording in the first place. 4. The fact that funding was cut, as soon as "Hades" was killed, removing the threat to Atlas. The final results from this was that, Nuclear plants were detonated for a power grab by Atlas, Dr. Pierre's capture was intended so Atlas could remove "Hades", and Manticore was to be created with the help of Dr. Pierre.

**2069**

Plans are drawn up to colonize Mars. With the colonization of the moon in 2052, Humanity has realized that it is almost out of space again. The first Artificial Intelligence is created, designed for assisting with crop yields and food management on Earth. However, within hours it becomes self aware, creating a world-wide panic. The process of peace between the A.I and humanity goes by very carefully, and very slowly.

**2084**

Terraforming projects enter the prototype stage for the future colonization of Mars. They are few and there, but are considered to be the most important contributions to the advancement of human science and technology. Reforms are being created (due to the aggressive campaigning by Equalists) to consider Artificial Intelligences to be on the same level of humans and have the same sentient rights.

**2086**

Terraforming prototypes within the Moon's biodomes have proven to have successful results, scientists are positive that the colonization of Mars is achievable within a few years. Meanwhile, non-military A.I are (under law) now considered to be equal as humans, but will face certain restrictions on certain operations and actions involving other sentient beings, these restrictions are accepted by the A.I community.

**2089**

Mars is colonized, terraforming projects begin, and the first goal is to have a breathable atmosphere within a hundred years. New methods of transportation in space are being looked into, but it seems Atlas corporation is ahead of the race. By the end of **2089**, despite running into numerous setbacks and sabotage attempts, they introduce the inertialess drive, capable of putting people on Mars in weeks. This achievement is said to have been achievable only because of the assistance of the A.I community that had been working on the project. The world's superpowers now predict long-term issues with the introduction of the inertialess drive, there is no effective way of monitoring and regulating what happens in space, without a proper space military. The Earth Alliance secretly begins the production of blueprints for space-based military weapons and ships.

**2101**

Inertialess drives are upgraded, the solar system can now be crossed in a matter of weeks instead of years. This leads to a boom in space travel industry, the moon can be reached in minutes, Mars a day Jupiter a week, Pluto two months.

Unfortunately, a crazed miner by the name of Marcus Oswald steals an interialess drive and industrial thrusters, 'nailed' it to a large 3/4 of a mile asteroid and attempted to crash it into the city of Elon on Mars. During its travel to Mars however, an outpost detected the irregular path and its destination.. Quickly contacting the Alliance, a nearby warship, there for refit, was sent with to deal with it. Upon reaching the asteroid however it discovered that it was speeding too fast, the inertialess drive was not made aware until they were already there. So in a brave act of heroism the crew of the warship decided that the best and only option, was to detonate their own ship's nuclear reactors, so that the asteroid would be knocked off course and impact with one of Mars's many desolate deserts. Sadly, this plan was acted out before the concept of emergency evacuation pods became mandatory on ships. With none of the crew able to leave, they could only stay and wait until the bright flash that would signal the end of their lives appeared.

It did. There were no survivors, but the asteroid would never be able to cause harm as it landed hundreds of miles away from civilization. Alliance leaders would later look upon this, and reinforce the notion that the militarization of space was necessary for the protection and safety of humans everywhere.

**2120**

An alien device is discovered within Charon by Prometheus (a subsidiary of Atlas) survey teams. The relay picks up signals being sent from the orbiting ship, and activates, destroying the ice dwarf, and accidentally killing all survey teams in the process. Many people go into mass hysteria due to the many unknowns, and theories that aliens have been watching us the whole time, or controlling the events of the world. With the recent unrest, it is decided that a joint military organization is to be assembled, with a single goal: to protect Humanity as a whole. Plans and blueprints for militarization in space become public. The first A.I designed for war is created, classified as a "Warmind", the process to create it is kept classified above top secret. The first Warmind immediately begins creating potential scenarios and simulations to predict the purpose of the Charon device, the most likely possibilities are identified as: it is A) Superluminal communications device/monitoring station B) Super-Bomb C) Transportation device. Each scenario is horrifying to the world's leader, the Warmind's analysis is kept secret.

**2121**

The first Warmind, dubbed "Onyx", becomes Self-Aware. It is unknown why it took Onyx so long compared to other . After being questioned on it, Onyx cryptically replies "Because I'm different" and provides no further information on the subject. A military expedition is sent to the Charon Device to further analyze it and the threat level it is to humanity. Onyx requests to be abroad, and is given permission. The material the Charon Device is identified as being incredibly dense, a plasma laser torch at maximum power, manages to take out less than a 5mm3 worth of material. Lab studies identify the metal as being near-indestructible, with its atomic structure being locked in place. A large kinetic impact or significant amount of energy discharge (and time) is determined to be the only ways of cracking it's shell. But more interesting than that is upon nearing it, the relay activates and sends the expedition to a different solar system containing five planets and the same device in Charon. Onyx quickly discovers that the Sol system is 36 light years away, and with deductive reasoning quickly discovers how to get back home. The Charon device is renamed Charon Relay.

**2138**

Due to unexpected advancements in technology, the terraforming of mars is achieved around 50 years ahead of schedule. Venus and Europa begin, expected completion time is around 50 of the addition of Mars to the Earth Alliance, the name is changed to Planetary Alliance. The militarization of space becomes one of the largest industries out there, with Atlas leading it. After numerous research expeditions, it is discovered that the Charon Device connects to other Relay Gates which in turn connect to even more, creating a complex system of instantaneous galactic transportation. The first wave of pioneers are sent by Prometheus, and terraforming projects begin on all planets that humanity can get its hands on. Prometheus introduces humanity's first FTL drive, capable of 2 light years a day. And in a secret space station somewhere in Sol's Kuiper Belt, humanity's first dreadnought-class ship is launched, at a whooping 2 kilometers long. 2nd-generation Warminds predict that humanity will encounter a spacefaring civilization within the next 50 years. This prediction is kept secret from the general public. Atlas begins working on new projects under Plantery's Alliance authorization designed to protect humanity from possibly hostile aliens. Construction for a space station in Arcturus System begins.

**2147**

Due to the introduction of new colonies from far away systems to the Planetary Alliance, an organizational change occurs: the Planetary Alliance is renamed the Systems Alliance. Contingency plans are created in the event that aliens take over human territory. Eden Prime is to be the decoy location of Earth in the event of an attack, the System Alliance have placed Relay Monitoring Stations near every relay, and a planetary defense program is required for every System's Alliance Colony. In addition all planetary law enforcement are required to take Hostile Environment Defense Education. Strange transmissions have been discovered coming out of the Perseus Veil, an expedition is planned to be sent out in **2148** to uncover the origins of the Perseus Transmission, and map out space in the meanwhile, it is dubbed Operation: Exodus.

**2148**

The Exodus research expedition discovers an active relay in a previously unmapped system. Reports come back to System Alliance Command, they quickly respond with a task force of battlecruisers and a Warmind. Initial results come back with nothing, and entering from the other side offers no clue to who the perpetrator was. A monitoring space station is assigned to the relay gate along with a small security attachment, all under the command of 1st-Gen Warmind Onyx. In the meanwhile Operation: Exodus is to be placed under hold, until further investigations determine that the unmapped system is safe for travel.

**2151**

The SSV "Singapore" disappears overs Mars after testing a new-prototype FTL engine that uses a different concept from the inertialess drive. Alliance PR manages to keep the creation of the FTL drive secret from the general public, but not the explosion caused by the ship. News agencies simply report the incident as the result of an inertialess drive malfunction caused by improper placement, unfortunately it left no known survivors.

**2156**

Humanity's population is at 55 billion. Plans for Operation: Exodus to be restarted commence, the planned date of aperture is **2157**. Warships are called back to Sol System for Fleet Combat Training and Thursday Way simulations under the supervision of Warminds. Expected completion time is next year. Warships from Shanxi requesting to attend it are denied, under the authorization of Onyx.

**2157**

The expedition is sent, consisting of a single Prometheus Exploratory Vessel and two private company escorts. It goes wrong in hours. One of the escorts returns, showing signs of battle. Attempting to return to Shanxi, it is chased by 3 unidentified ships before being shot down over the atmosphere of Shanxi. Distress Transmissions are received by Alliance Navy. The 2nd fleet enters Shanxi's star system twenty-four hours after receiving the distress signal; an alien fleet stands over Shanxi…


	2. Chapter 2: Shanxi Part 1

**2:33 11/12/2157- [onboard SSV Armstrong]…**

"So whats the plan boss?"

"Were gonna sit 'till we get the order to deploy, then make sure those aliens go running back to their alien mamas."

"Keep telling you man, theres no aliens, this is strictly a humanitarian crisis - some alien virus or some such shit. Maybe the planet's governor got his cat stuck on a tree"

With a smack in the arm, came the full acknowledgement of where Private 1st Class Michael Sheperd was. "Tell em Shepherd". The single low-level light in the roof of the pod barely outlined the bunch of misfits that made up Fireteam Wardog. In the other three seats were Private 2nd Class Jon "Dunn" Lanier, Private 1st Class David Bourne, and Service Chief John Foley. The intercom at the top of the Type 2-Atmospheric Entry Vehicle came to life. And with it came the voice of the Forward Battle Commander "All pods set to drop, we're launching in 20…". Service Chief Avery looked into the eyes Private 1st Class Sheperd, before placing on the pod's safety harness. Everyone followed suit and did the same, the green light at the top of the pod signifying that everyone was ready. "Alright everyone, hold tight. Here we go." Exclaimed Avery. Shepherd's breathing increased, the adrenaline hitting him hard, "Drop Shakes" is what everybody knew it by. The drop pod's intercom activated once again "All pods ready."

"5…" Time slowed down for Michael, he could see Dunn was nervous. The tactical HUD displayed his teammates, identifying which parts of his brain were most active. Stress Hormones were running around his limbic system.

"4…" Michael checked and rechecked his weapon, the IMR Mark-3 Integrated Munitions IMR has been the prime choice of weapon for the Marine Corps, for over a hundred years. Going through numerous technological changes, but always maintaining its iconic name and appearance.

"3…" He tested his exosuit's servos, moving his arms around, then his legs. He saw everyone else doing the same in the pod. His HUD went through a few system checks within the past second.

"2…" He wondered about what his parents would say about him joining the military. Being deployed light years away from Earth. And what about the aliens, were they like us? Did they have any fears? If they don't, he knew that they would now.

"1…" No one spoke as the pod began to shake.

"Deploy, Deploy, Deploy!" The pod ejected, beginning its descent to Shanxi. Michael looked up and saw the pod's smart screen became alive, showing the SSV Armstrong gliding over the atmosphere of Shanxi. along with two other Kronos-class airships, and the hundreds of pods, like Michaels, burning through the atmosphere. Missiles and whatever the aliens used impacted the pod's floor, putting holes into the smart-screen that covered the entire pod. Michael could see his Operation's Chief sweating, his HUD showing increased heart rates in all his teammates. For the next minute, the alien's kinetic weaponry would constantly pound on the drop pod's armor, forming holes. Words were spilling out the radio, too fast and too much for even Michael's enhanced senses to pick up.

"5,000 to drop point" The pod's thrusters kicked in, the smart screens showing images of the aliens below. Their armor despite the obvious differences between the human biology, could easily be described as "being designed for combat". The smart screens around the pod deactivated, the red light next to the door flashed. And then came the impact.

**8:47 11/12/2157-Private 1st Class Michael Shepard [Shanxi]...**

A sniper rifle crackled to life, firing 30mm HE rounds..."Big Dragon, this is Wardog One-Two Actual. Requesting immediate air strike, over!" Michael sat on the remains of a balcony in what was known as Shanxi's tallest building. Unfortunately due to the intense fighting ever since the invasion, it was really the only building that was not close to collapsing. The wind was blowing hard, and fire raged across the landscape, towers broken in the distance, the inferno touching each and every building. In the distance Michael could make out the faint lights of distant firefights, green and blue lights contrasting with the red of a burning city, as the aliens were fighting a desperate last stand against those they attempted to take. The 30mm sniper rifle continued it's rampage, disintegrating it's targets.

"Negative One-Two Actual, all available air units are currently tasked with eliminating hostile air-support. Proceed north to Grid Kilo Four-Three and provide support to Tier 1 rescue forces, out." There it was, the order Michael and his team had been waiting for. They weren't anything like Wardog Team, that team's dogtags hung around his neck. It was still hard to believe, Dunn, Foley, David… all gone. All because of a fucking ambush by those bird-headed freaks. He didn't care about this team, he didn't even bother to get to know their names. It didn't matter, they were probably gonna die before the day was over anyway. But he kept going, doing order after order, pushing forward with each strike, just wanting to kill as many of those fuckers as possible. "Activate jump assists" he ordered. "We're gonna go down this building the quick way." Everyone activated their Exo's Jump Assists, counter thrusters would slow down high jumps, making it safe enough for a human to land. Michael looked upon the burning city one last time, before making his jump. The wind blew a harsh tune as he fell eighty-one stories, and then his thrusters kicked in, slowing his descent until he heard the crunch of the gravel beneath his feet. As soon as everyone else landed, he sent the "Move Out" order. Everyone's training kicked in, and they began to move as towards their objective.

Michael payed attention to his surroundings, trying to take in everything, every shadow, every fire, the destroyed architecture as he walked through an alleyway, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Somewhere in the grey walls, he saw Wardog team, their shadows. His feet had a mind of their own, moving him towards his objective without pause. And then he saw it, a group of strangely shaped humanoids, 200 meters ahead of him. Ingrained training instantly had him find cover, his team followed suite. He showed his head above the large piece of rubble he had covered behind. Everyone's HUD highlighted the unsuspecting hostiles in red; within seconds orders were handed out to the entire team. Everyone responded with a green light to Michael's helmet. 'Time to cause damage' thought Michael, his genetically enhanced endocrine system pumped adrenaline to his body, time slowed-down, and he moved into the shadows.

**21:02 11/12/2157-Turian Centurion...**

'The spirits-damned mammals, things just couldn't make things simple could they. It was suspected that this was their planet of origin, and that the few ships that were defeated was the bulk of the huemens defenses. Huemens, hoomens, whatever. That V.I they captured told them it was, obviously it must have been misinformed, it didn't mention anything about Energy Weapons, or the suppression fleet that existed. Dealing with simple humans and their kinetic weapons was easy, but this... ' His thoughts would never be finished as his squad's shields were fried by an EMP grenade, and the turian right next to him, had his head blown apart. Blood splattering all over the armor he was wearing.

Instinctively, he formed a barrier around himself. "Contacts!" yelled one of the quicker-reacting Turians, he moved out of the line fire, finding cover behind one the hoomens hover vehicles. The heavy, blocky design provided a good amount of protection from any of the ape's kinetic weapons. "Covering fire!" he ordered. He moved towards the remains another Hoomen vehicle, destroyed by the many firefights it's been involved in, but nevertheless the best piece of cover within 20 meters. He didn't have to worry about his team failing his orders, they were turians. He observed the hoomen warriors jumping to the top of one of the small roof tops, and another slide across the broken pavement and into the cover of a Turian transport carrier. Such unorthodox tactics, the closest thing he's ever seen to their strange maneuvers was by a Havoc team, but he had to admit their effectiveness.

The battle raged on like this, turians and humans would take turns attacking each other. Each time one got too close to the other's side, they would be forced to stay there, suppressed by their enemy. The game changer didn't come until twenty minutes after the battle started, in the form of a Atlas Airborne Team. Within minutes the battle turned to the marines/Atlas favor, the turians were outnumbered and outgunned. Eventually the battle ended with a single turian committing a last stand on top of a civilian hovercar.

'This it. My entire team is gone, I will die a warrior's death, worthy of any.' He continued firing his vindicator rifle, picking up a phaeston rifle on the ground. Firing from the hip as the hoomen's bullets pierced his black armor, and entered his skin. Bleeding, he continued his stand until the bullets disabled his limbs. As he laid on the broken rubble staring into the alien sky, he could not help but wonder how his family would react finding out about his death. He watched as the alien warriors slowly surrounded his body, until one of the new strange white armored ones stood above him. He tried to stare into white helmet, trying to figure out what the human was thinking, and failed. And with his last dying breath, he thought of his family and his troubled brother, Saren.

**21:59 11/12/2157-Private 1st Class Michael Shepard: **

He watched as one of the Atlas Airborne troops stood over the final turian's body. It angered him to see the soldier crouch down and close the alien's eyes, like he was some fucking human. The soldier turned towards him, and said in a surprisingly female voice "I can read your bio-signs, you're upset. These aliens are more alike to us then you think." But the anger could no longer be contained, "Like the fuck they are! They killed my friends, they attacked this planet for no reason!" She simply turned her helmet towards his direction, before walking into one of the grey alleyways, the rest of the Atlas Airborne troops moving with her. 'No point in staying behind' He and the remaining seven members of his twelve man team picked up the fallen's dogtags before moving towards their original objective.

Michael and his team continued moving north on the street. Paying much attention to their surroundings. As they moved closer to their objective, which happened to be in downtown, they noticed the sky getting darker, and the buildings more damaged. At only a short distance away, the team began to hear a firefight, with numerous garbled transmissions coming in and out from all over the place.

They picked up the speed, running towards the heavy smoke that created a grey wall in the street. "Move it! Move it!" yelled Michael. At the final hundred meters they practically began to sprint. Their boots hitting the ground hard, followed by the sound of the exosuit's motors. They ran through the smoke, their helmet's protecting them from large concentration of carbon dioxide. And as soon as the smoke cleared they saw what could only be described as hell.

They stood at the edge of a crater, created by the impact of an airship that collided with one of the alien's frigates, its hull cracked in half. And around it laid the alien's final stand. Bullets and lasers were flying everywhere, the heat was barely being held off by the armor's temperature regulators. Numerous bird-headed troops were firing from superior defensive positions into the the human rescue forces that surrounded it. Drones were swarming around the site, shaping the battlefield, like a gardener would his garden. Hundreds of troops shared the battlefield, with an equal amount of dead bodies laying in the kill box between both tides of soldiers. Michael knew that unless they destroyed whatever was jamming his comms, and received some air support, that this would become a battle of attrition, with whoever was stuck in the airship becoming a dead man walking. Unfortunately, command stated back at the tower that there were no available air units. And thats when his radio crackled.

"One-Two Actual, Standby…" One of the servicemen looked at Michael and asked "What the hell does he mean standby?" His question was answered with the loud crackle of a high altitude, heavy ion engine dropping 5000ft over the city. He looked up and saw lightning forming in the sky. "One-Two Actual, you're the only one when can contact in the area, a Paladin should be entering your airspace shortly, Callsign: Excalibur…". Everything else after that faded out. Michael was sure that the cries of excitement could be heard by the aliens. A Paladin. Holy shit! A Paladin! The god of war arrived and by god, those beneath its feet would be crushed.

His wish was answered and now he had the power to rain down never-before-seen hell upon his enemies, Michael radioed the Paladin, "Excalibur this is Wardog One-Two Actual requesting immediate air strike. Target Area will be highlighted with threat beacons. Danger Close. Over."

Michael waited for the reply, time became very slow for him as he awaited the reply. After waiting what felt like forever he received a reply, "Negative One-Two Actual, targets are being highlighted with your helmet's smart vision."'Well no shit he thought to himself 'that would have been easier'

"Just tell us when you're ready to begin termination". Michael smiled for the first time in a day, "Permission to execute strike packages on Grid Kilo..."

* * *

Codex

AC-250 Paladin: Introduced in 2057, the AC-250 Paladin is a heavily armed ground-attack gunship which has gone through very few aesthetic changes since its introduction. It is capable of being deployed to orbit by any System Alliance space vessel that is classified as dreadnought or above.

This Gunship has been upgraded numerous times since it rolled off the assembly line. Standard Defenses include heavy armor plating, and advanced aerial countermeasures such as ECM jamming technology. Multiple Kill Vehicles are a recent addition to the defensive systems of the AC-250. Standard Armaments include two pairs of L40 gatling lasers, two Mark V railguns, and S-210 Rapid Missile Launchers. Encounters with this aircraft usually results in the complete destruction of all hostile forces within its given area.


	3. Chapter 3: Shanxi Part 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect or call of duty.**

**23:11 11/12/2157- Lieutenant Deceus: **

The humens surrounded the crash-site. His men were running out of rations and ammo. He knew that if none of the ships escaped to warn Palaven, then they would lose this planet. He ran to a turret as its previous gunner fell on the floor, a hole in his skull. He immediately opened fire on a group of humen warriors that were attempting to cross the the trench that divided his ship and the humen's perimeter, they responded by bringing up their spirits damn shields. 'It seemed like every humen warrior had it.' The incendiary rounds were blocked by the quickest reacting warriors, but those who didn't were cut down to little shreds of meat. He continued his streak, the turian soldiers next to him assisting him even though they themselves were bloody and injured. Everyone was but he just like everyone else he wouldn't back down.

And suddenly the strange electric buzzing could be heard. He looked towards the sky, seeing bright flashes appear in the dark grey. A lightning storm. That was when he noticed something strange, the humens were falling back, away from the ship. The drones were creating a cloud around them, sacrificing themselves to absorb all the firepower his fellow soldiers were putting into it. He could not be any more proud at the display of military unity, teamwork they put into it. However, some of his soldiers left their positions trying to chase down the retreating enemy.

"All soldiers pursuing, stay back, and reinforce defensive positions, the huemens are about to attack!" he heard someone order.

They stopped, but only to look at the sky. Instinctively he shifted his eyes too, looking at the sky, and then he saw it, the white flashes turn blood red.

Red lights began to rain from the sky, hitting the turians who originally attempted to chase down the humens. He watched as it simply disintegrated them, kicking up debris in every direction. Some of the lights got bigger, explosions coming out of the fortified positions that lay within and around the ship. His soldiers were dying and there was nothing he could do about it. Deceus could only stare in awe, as the red lights came for him…

**23:13 11/12/2157-Private 1st Class Michael Sheperd**

"Hot damn! That's gotta' hurt." Came the barely audible transmission by Excalibur.

Michael watched with satisfaction, as the Paladin fired all its weapons. Lasers destroying everything in their path, 5cm shells impacted fortified positions, leaving them little more than scrap metal.

"Oh shit! We got a lock on." But those who were remaining began to open fire on the warship. Missiles launched towards the warship. 'No No No!' Thought Michael, he could only watch as some of the drones on the battlefield intercepted a few of the missiles the aliens launched, the rest speeding towards the Paladin.

"Spark the flares! Copy tha…Deploying flares!" Flares and ECMs sparked everywhere, distracting a majority of the missiles. Meanwhile Lasers were shooting down those weren't taking the bait, making a light show that under any other circumstance would be considered beautiful, but not here, not now. And it was not enough, AA fire from the few remaining alien positions were impacting the Paladin's hull. The thick hole was being speared with overwhelming firepower The Gatling lasers overheated at the worst moment possible. Michael could only shake his head as missile after missile impacted upon the warship, the Multiple Kill Vehicles not being able to keep up with the pace. The small ten second battle ended with a blinding explosion that forced Michael to look away, even as his HUD polarized. And when he looked back up all he could see was an uncountable amount of debris sailed through the air, shredding everything it touched. Most of it hitting the crash site. Piece after large piece of metal crashed into battlefield, deforming the ground it touched. Trenches were hit, and the crashed alien ship collapsed within itself before exploding in a fiery ball. Fire incinerating everything within several hundred meters… including the airship. He jumped off the edge of the crater, entering the inferno below. Jump assists slowed him down, preventing the fall from breaking his legs or causing any injury. He glanced back up only to see two of the remaining soldiers fly down behind him before a large ion engine crashed into where they were only seconds before. Everyone who was too slow to react was crushed.

As soon as he finished landing his radio cleared up, meaning whatever jamming device the aliens were using was destroyed in the explosion. "Attention all units within the Grid Kilo two-three, your orders have been updated." He read them quickly, 'Rescue operations were to be underway immediately, with an airship coming in to carry those in critical conditions for advanced medical care and to establish a temporary hospital', Pararescue teams and soldiers ran towards the blast zone in an attempt to get out any survivors. Drones sped through the air, scanning every possibly living thing. Michael's exosuit distributed most of its energy reserves for maximum speed.

As he sprinted between the large pieces of metal and small craters that stuck out everywhere, he saw numerous soldiers giving as much medical care to others as they could to those who were injured. He ran past a dead soldier, the metal of his exosuit scorched into his skin, his body in half. The blue BDUs soaked in red, organs and blood laying on the ground and his body black burnt from the fire. 'Nothing he could for him' thought Michael. The chaos around him became a blur, he ran past more fire. More debris.  
And even more bodies or what remained of them. He reached a door in the side of the airship, his helmet picking the faint distress signal of someone within the burning, confined spaces on the ship. Michael kicked at the door once, creating a large dent in the metal. He kicked again, the door teared off its titanium hinges, and he ran inside, stepping into the ruins of a large hanger. Metal crates were everywhere, and a wall of flame divided the entire hanger in half. 'No way anyone could get passed that, thought Michael' He began to search for the origin of the distress beacon, finding only blood splatters and ashes all over the floor. After minutes of searching, he found the distress signal's origin.

It was inside a large container; unfortunately the doors were locked in place. He guessed that someone must have locked themselves inside of the crate when the ship crashed. He punched the center of the door, warping it; he repeated his action multiple times, before finally creating a hole large enough to stick both of his hands into. He put both of hands into it, before pulling apart the door. He stepped into the large dented crate. Within it he saw a young woman lying down, highlighted by the light of the fire behind him, he could see her red hair covering her face. His HUD quickly zoomed in, and discovered very faint biosigns. She was unconscious but alive. 3rd degree burns covered her body, if he didn't get her out soon, she would most likely die to asphyxiation. He picked her up, placing her over his back firemen style. He sprinted out of the hanger and into the grey corridors of the ship, unsure of whether or not the person he was carrying would survive.

He paused in confusion as the route he traced back coming in was blocked. His mind quickly realized that the hall must have collapsed upon itself. He turned around only to have that part of the hall meet the same fate. That meant that the whole ship was about to fall apart, he would have to find a way out and quickly. He frantically searched for a way out, his helmet warning him that his thermos could barely handle the heat. He laid his eyes on a damaged portion of the wall, he mentally commanded his armor to focus all its power into the exo's servos. Michael's plan was to kick the wall down, he put the girl on the floor before bringing his leg back and kicking the wall. The hall began to collapse due to the sudden structural integrity it was facing, he grabbed the woman and placed her in the fireman's carry again before walking through the hole in the wall. He could see the outside but a support pillar stood in his way.

'So close but the fucking thing is in the way'

He would have to move the support pillar out of his path, but it was to high to kick, and to break it would probably cause the entrance to collapse. He knew what he had to do, he used his left hand to grab the woman's leg, and with his right hand began to push the pillar up; the titanium began to burn his hand, but he knew that if he stopped now, the woman and him would die. Michael could feel his arms muscles began to rip, his servos working past their safety limits to move the obstacle that stood between him and freedom. With a roar he yelled giving enough space between him and the pillar to let go. He exited through the door he came in, greeted by a small team of rescue forces.

"Holy shit boss!" one of them stated. Michael's vision began to blur as he fell on his knees. "He's bleeding! Medic!" screamed one of the soldiers. A man with a red cross stepped forward, the medic Michael presumes, before reaching out and taking the girl off his back. The same guy who was talking before reaches out to Michael, grabbing his shoulder before saying "Thats a hell of a brave thing you did there, good job soldier." Those were the last words he heard before being placed on a stretcher. He quickly glanced at the woman he saved. She was also on a stretcher exactly like his. He managed to get a look at her name tag, which happened to be a half burnt "_HANNAH_…" before his vision turned black.

**Councillor Chambers, Citadel**

The trees within the chambers shed off a few leaves, the bright pink and white colors flowing through the air. The chambers were polished and clean as they always were. And through the large windows was the captivating sight of the Widow Nebula. The white and pink giving the room a soft glow, that could not be replicated anywhere else in the galaxy. Every race was competing for a podium that would allow them to have the serene sight behind them.

And Councilor Tevos was very, very unhappy with what she was hearing. 'An attack against an unknown species, yes they were breaking Council law but what exactly was the turian military thinking? Diplomacy was always the best option.' But before she could say anything Valern beat her to the punch. "And what exactly was your plan Spartacus? Defeat an unknown species with unknown capabilities and make them a client race? This was a terrible mistake on your species part; your predecessor wouldn't have allowed this to happen.

Spartacus stared at her, attempting to get her to back down, and failing. He sighed before speaking, "I have no say over what the Primarch does. And we created these laws were created for a reason, or did you forget the Rachni Wars?! We were eliminating the potential threats to galactic stability, we were doing our job… opening a mass relay could have had severe consequences". Neither one of the councilors could disagree with that answer. Spartacus stared down at his omnitool, catching Tevos attention. She asked upon seeing Spartacus's faces turn to a frown, "What's wrong Spartacus?" Valern made an educated guess before he could answer, "The Turian's plan probably backfired on them". Spartacus looked up, and softly said "The fleet the Primarch sent hasn't reported for 8 hours. Something must have gone wrong, with the communications or something." Tevos could see that Valern was doing what the Salarian's do while finding answers before they even exist, "Unlikely. Fleet was most likely destroyed by a quick response fleet. Underestimated these huemens, likely have advanced stealth technologies or advanced ship-grade weapons. Would be interesting to learn more about them."

Spartacus did not take it too lightly, "Turians? Defeated by a bunch of primitives? Thats not possible, so obviously your brain must have overlooked something." Before Tevos knew it, they were arguing again.

Tevos lightly pinched the bridge of her nose, as Valern and Spartacus were arguing over the issue, Tevos was trying to figure out peaceful solutions to the problem at hand. A diplomatic team would have to be sent, without the turians being on it. It would take time to easy away the feelings of conflict the race had towards the turians, blame could also be shifted to the patrol group's Commanding Officer. She was sure that she could, with time, solve the problem. However, in the event that they would respond in a hostile fashion to the diplomatic team, she would be forced to send the Turians to pacify their race. 'I have a lot of planning to do' she thought, she looked at the two arguing councilors before saying "I have an idea, but first a public meeting with the Primarch will need to be in order." This caught the two bickering councilor's attention. Valern paused for a moment before making an educated guess, getting every part of it right. "You want to send diplomatic team quickly, shift the blame unto the fleet's commanding officer, preventing fallout out on the council. And in the event the diplomatic team doesn't work, you can just say that the Turians were following Council laws before forcing them to join as a client race. Well Done Tevos"

And for the first time ever, the councilors' saw Valern laugh before his face became serious again.

"STG Intelligence teams are already on standby next to Relay 314, we'll know if they make any moves." Tevos smiled at that, every one of them were the best at what they did.

"Time to get to work…"

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Codex

Integrated Munitions Rifle Mark-3: The IMR is a selective fire assault rifle. Due to 3-D printing technology, it is capable of printing 60 rounds every 30 seconds; with a maximum ammo reserve of 540 rounds. The IMR is the standard issue assault rifle for Alliance Marines and has been in service for over a hundred years. The IMR an attached electronics suite that provides information on rounds remaining in the magazine, ammo reserve, compass heading, as well as several other convenient functions. The IMR can be outfitted with a number of modifications including flash suppressors, a grenade launcher or a shotgun, and more exotic ammunition types like Hollow Point rounds.

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**Note: I enjoyed reading the review by a RandomReviewer, and if anyone has any other suggestions, than by all means please do speak your mind.**

**I know this story doesn't seem long, and that each page seems short. But this is the very first time I've ever written something like this, so do excuse me. Anyway, next up I'm introducing a certain task force with a lot of cool toys.**


	4. Chapter 4: Just your everyday situation

**Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect or call of duty.**

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**23:11 11/19/2157-** **Committee of Minds Hearing **

"This meeting is now in order. Debriefing of the events during the "Shanxi Campaign" by WM-01NBI, dubbed 'Onyx' is now in effect."

The room became silent, as every major politician and high ranking military member within the Alliance laid their eyes upon the holotable that lied in the center of the large room. The avatar of Onyx appeared, while most Artificial Intelligences would have some resemblance to humans, or human made objects, Onyx was very unique in his choice of appearance. His avatar being a narrow, sharp figure in the shape of the greek omega, followed by a line in each side that curves down at the end, neither touching the 'omega'. Most engineers thought of the symbol as truly something revolutionary, a step forward into the individuality of Artificial Intelligences.

"Let it be reminded that discussion of any material related to this hearing to personal without the same security clearance will be considered an act of treason, punishable by SAUIMJ Article 205c. Now, the Court requests a detailed analysis over the hostile extraterrestrials that invaded the colony of Shanxi and the following battle that took place on the planet."

The courtroom shaked as a deep, heavy voice growled in response. "You ask an open question and in response you will get open answer." The icon disappeared, and in its place were pictures, autopsy reports, data after bit of data files came and went as they appeared on the table. The information moving too fast for any human to read, ending a few minutes later. Murmurs began to pierce the silent room, as person turned to person trying to discuss what they saw.

"This court orders silence!" The murmurs died down leaving only the faintest of whispers remaining. "WM-01NBI, are you attempting to mislead or make fun of the court during a Cleaning House Contingency?" asked the Secretary General.

The Omega-like symbol flashed red twice, silencing everyone. "Negative. Your query was not specific enough. My information is incomprehensible to your mind. I see things in 4-dimensions; you request a more detailed answer? Then you will ask a more detailed question. Or are you attempting to reduce the combat effectiveness of the Systems Alliance during a Cleaning House Contingency?"

The face of the Secretary General was frowning. 'God damn piece of shit machine, why I oughta…' The man next to him stood up, his voice rising to address Onyx directly, "Requesting threat assessment over hostile extraterrestrial's capabilities. We want your predictions over what they're next move will be-" The Judge Advocate General, cleared his throat twice, attempting to quiet the speaking man, but he didn't stop. "-and we want to know how to stop them. Whatever intelligence you can provide over their history would also be very much appreciated…sir" The man sat down, the Secretary General managed to get the rank and name of the speaking person, some hotshot from the Officer Academy. He would make sure to have an "in-depth" discussion over the breach in protocol. Before he could open his mouth though, the A.I replied.

"Request accepted 2nd Lieutenant Steven Hackett. An image of one of the alien warriors appeared where Onyx's Avatar was. Preliminary reports show the hostile extraterrestrials using advanced kinetic weaponry on a large scale." A picture of a rectangular-like weapon appeared before the court, "Statements by deployed Marines identify the weapon as being a high level threat to standard infantry defenses. The weapons fire sand-sized grains at hypersonic velocities, overpenetrating most body armor, and completely shredding the human body. These sand-sized metal grains are shaved off a huge block of metal located within the gun, virtually giving them an extremely large amount of ammo per reload, enough to last multiple battles." Every military person within the room was listening intently to what was being said, some writing down on their holo-boards, others trying to understand what they were hearing.

"How many rounds can they fire before needing to replace this metal block?" asked one of the scientists on the board. Her French accent betrayed her origin of birth.

"It depends on the respective weapon, long-range weapons fire larger sized metal shavings, increasing the damage at the cost of being able to fire less before needing to cool down. Their standard battle rifle can fire tens of thousands of rounds before needing any replacement parts. Likewise, their entire defensive capabilities are based around that, in the form of "kinetic shielding" and dense armor that is designed to stop the bullet in its place."

"How did they overcome the energy problems that came with developing the personal armor shielding?"

"This…" A picture of a rock appeared in the center holotable "…was discovered by geological survey teams on Eden Prime four years ago. It's a radioactive element with an atomic number of zero. Initial tests showed…" Onyx was interrupted with a question by the Secretary General, "Why wasn't this brought to our attention earlier?"

"Do you disrupt other human beings when their speaking? It is moments like this where I wish I could physically kick your ass out of this room. I suggest you leave the talking to people capable of reason, like Mr. Hackett over there." The Warmind was practically scolding the man, like a parent would to their child.

The Judge was stunned to silence. Everyone else held their breath as the Judge Advocate General slowly but loudy replied "WM-01NBI, pursuant to Article 22 of SA Regulation 12-145-72, I am ordering you to exit the court and be taken to an Artificial Intelligence evaluation team to be investigated for displaying possible logic rampancy, this briefing will be…" He never finished his sentence before Onyx replied "Your request is denied."

"On whose authority?"

"On my authority!" Everyone in the room gasped. "I've been doing this specific job for as long as you have been born and, Mr. Moise, you do realize that pursuant to Cleaning House contingency, my jurisdiction overrides any civilian orders that interfere with humanity's survival? Your attempts to characterize me as just some stupid machine is noted. And let me remind you that you are only here because of your father's relationships with people. If you attempt to interrupt me or anyone else again, I will have you locked up until the threat of alien invasion passes, as stated in SAUIMJ Article 309b, Section 2."

The following silence in the room said everything, not a single sound passed anyone lips as everyone came to the full realization of what was said. A military artificial intelligence just put a high-ranking politician into his place just as if it was a normal Tuesday for him. "Now if we may continue…"

** 02:00 11/19/2157-?**

A ceiling light in the room turned on, illuminating the shiny brown wooden table that lay in the center of that dominated the room. The room had little furniture except for the four chairs around the table and a smart screen on the wall. It was in this room where decisions that affected humanity as a whole happened. It is here where it is decided if humanity is will make a new discovery. It is from here where the economy and industries are controlled. It is here where it is decided if humanity is ready to move forward. But for today this room and its future occupants would decide the future of not only the System Alliance but of the entire galaxy. The meeting began with the entrance of two men and women, one of business, and one of politics. The man of business, a young billionaire with silver-grey hair and steely blue eyes lit a cigarette before sitting down. "So on to the today's topic, please enter your authorization codes, so we can get down to business. The rest should be joining us soon." he started. The door sheathed closed behind him, forming a faraday cage, the layers surrounding the room making it impossible for any electronic signals to escape. The only source of outside interference came in the form of three newly patented (and off-the-books) Quantum Entanglement Communicators that were installed into the two unoccupied chairs. Everything is known in this room and no one knows about it outside, except a very small select elite group of people. All of whom could be counted on the fingers of the well-suited man's hand

The suit put tapped his cigarette into the astray before typing the password into the holo-pad in his hands. After a few moments of verification, the pads unlocked for the blue-eyed man and the young woman sitting in the chair across from him. "Seems that the Alliance has made some interesting developments reverse-engineering the Turian's technology." He looked at the woman infront of him before saying "Good news, thanks to the efforts of you know who, we now have autopsy reports and a few DNA samples." He inhaled his cigarette and observed the woman processing the information before nodding her head. She opened her mouth in response but was interrupted by the voice of another person.

"Good news indeed." And with the voice came the hologram of an elderly, pale man in a simple black suit on one of the chairs. His grey eyes not betraying the years of experience he had nor the intelligence and wisdom he had gained from those experiences. "Karl wished he could be here, but he is busy with other projects."

"Busy enough to be absent for this?" questioned the suited man. His cigarette at three-quarters its original size.

"Do not question us young man, we've lived much…" his voice slowly emphasized the "much" for extra effect "…longer than you have." The elderly man seemed to look into nothingness; thinking of events long since passed, before regaining his composure and putting his virtual hands on the table. "But anyway, where were we?"

"We were discussing the possibilities of winning this war before the Turians and their ever illusive allies attempt to attack us again." Everyone in the room knew exactly what the figure on the screen was talking about, surveillance probes have appeared from the mass relays. At first the Alliance ships patrolling it thought that alien ships were exiting out the relay, but no ships could be found. Ship sensors picked up nothing, so the assumption was that there were stealth ships hiding around. Within minutes of discovering the unauthorized usage of the mass relays, Warmind Onyx began scanning the nearby vicinity of the relay. Results kept coming with no answer, so in response he sent out infrared beacons, to highlight the outlines of any foreign objects. Results were instantaneous; dozens of small stealth coated objects were hiding around the fleet and the planet Shanxi. All but a few probes were destroyed, the rest captured before being able to escape.

The suited man turned his attention towards the screen "It is nice of you to attend our little club."

"The pleasure is mine. However, my time is limited, and no doubt someone will take notice if I remain absent for too long. So my question remains, why exactly are we here Jack?" The suited man inhaled his cigarette once more before blowing the smoke out and answering. "Phase two and a certain Shadow Organization that despite my best efforts, I still have no information over." He spat out the final words with disgust. Information was power. And currently no one knew the status of his specific query; it was almost as if they didn't exist to begin with. But he's seen the files, everyone here has, more so him than anyone else within the room.

A holo-pad appeared in the older man's hands, his attention focused on the contents displayed. "So do we all agree that phase two is ready for activation? I already have Karl's vote."

"Have you considered the moral implications of moving to the next phase of the project? I want to make sure that all other options are ruled out before we continue on this path. Is this the right decision? And are we ready to go against those who you-" She accusingly pointed at the figure on the screen "-have assured me, beat us in the space colonization race by thousands of years?"

"What choice do we have now? The turians are coming. Soon. You think we'll defeat them with ordinary human soldiers? This isn't a war ordinary humans can win! This is the future – death's an inconvenience now, nothing more. Unless we put the project into action, we are all dead men walking."

"So I ask again, is phase two ready for activation?" Everyone's eyes were on the woman.

The three others nodded their heads in agreement. "Then we are at an understanding. I'll begin preparations immediately. But I will need a few test subjects to ensure it works properly…"

"I can make a limited amount of turians disappear, but you'll need to make them count" replied the figure on the smartscreen. The smallest flicker of a smile played over the elderly man's lips.

"I'll make sure our economy is prepared for war by the end of this month" replied the suited man.

"I'll try keeping as much information about the other aliens away from Alliance Command' replied the woman across him. Her brown eyes were focused on

"The Citadel Council will regret attacking humanity, and we all have you to thank…Onyx." The suited man let some smoke out. The omega-shaped figure on the screen flashed twice before replying.

"Always a pleasure. Unfortunately I must go." And with that the QEC turned off, leaving the four others to discuss the smaller details for their respective operations.

One by one each individual filed out of the room; until the single light illuminating the room turned off, leaving the faint smoke of a cigarette from the ashtray as the only sign of human occupation.

**24:58 11/19/2157-** **Committee of Minds Hearing **

Over time, some personal would leave, hearing what they wanted to hear. Others would file in, taking the empty spots within the very large room. Yet the seven who made up the main committee members never switched. Even the Secretary General was still there, but he remained quiet, making very few comments after the very public argument between Onyx and the threat he made. The committee members would take turns, each asking a question for their respective interest.

"Are they aware of any other alien races within the galaxy?" asked the French scientist on the board. Everything that she heard since the beginning of the court was interesting, almost revolutionary. Energy Shielding, some soldiers had some kind of power based on this Element Zero, and their ships were so much more mobile than the System Alliance's. Were it not for the Prometheus starships and the fortunate creations that were Warminds, casualties would have been much, much higher.

"No, at least not so far as I've been able to decode. If they did then it was probably destroyed when they activated their self-destruct protocols. I would doubt that they have anyway, due to their militaristic nature." A perfectly reasonable conclusion. These Turians were regardless of their relationships to other species, the biggest threat humanity has ever faced. And finally the question that everyone had been waiting for came "When do you think they will reappear?" asked the Scientist.

The answer came sooner than she though. "Soon. If their logistics are anything like ours, then I predict that we will see them again within the year. They will most likely send-"Onyx's avatar turned blood red. The lights throughout within the room strobes red. screen of every holopad within the room turned red, words flashing on them, "Emergency Evacuation. Unidentified contact coming out of Relay Gate 314. All essential-personal are to return combat stations. Non-essential personal are to evacuate immediately." The combination of the darkness of the room followed by the blinking red lights gave the meeting a very horror film like atmosphere. One by one everyone stood up, blue uniforms filed out of the room, dozens at a time. There was no yelling, no riots, just the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the very large stadium-like room.

Eventually the room's occupants disappeared until only the seven figures remained in the room. "If these aliens are truly a galactic entity, then we really do not stand a chance?" "Its moments like this where I wish humanity was the species in the universe sometimes, you know?" "I know but do not worry help is on the way." Unbeknownst to most of them, a small group of newly patented micro-swarming technology hid within the room, recording everything they said including the very last comment made by quietest man on the committee delegation, the very wise and very old Medical Prodigy himself, Dr. Karl Rasch.

**24:33 11/19/2157-** **CSV Wings of Lucen**

Captain Dilignia stood on the bridge, her blues laid upon the grey dot that was Relay 314. The grey dot slowly expanding unto the view of her bridge with each passing moment. To both of her sides, sat the diplomatic team she was here to escort. Two asari Matriarchs, both extremely respected members of the Thessian Council. A Salarian Dalatrass, no doubt a retired Special Task Group agent. And last but not least, a Turian, with some rather rare attributes. Unlike the other turians Dilignia has met, he was actually extremely quiet; his eyes would analyze everything about his environment. The scars that covered his brown plated face showed the kind of battles and wars you'd expect an Asari Commando to have been involved in. But what really got Dilignia's attention was his clan paint; it was red and black, in a style she had never seen before.

The voice of one of the Bridge members spoke "Ma'am entering containment zone…" It was a young asari maiden. Chosen for a high-test scores, in the University of Thessia, no doubt the Matriarch of her house got her onboard this ship. The young maiden turned to face her Captain. "STG is asking us for identification?"

Her voice was all deadpan. "Tell the STG that they can stop playing around now. We have the Citadel diplomatic envoy onboard and that they should 've known that the moment they hacked our ship."

Meanwhile outside the ship, the dark colored STG ships surrounded the Wing of Julen, a school of fish around its prey. Electronic Warfare suites were on standby, ready to disable the approaching ship in a moment's notice. Each ship had the most-up to date stealth drives in existence

"Entering relay- "Everyone held their breath "-now." All that could be seen was a tendril of lightning, and then a flash as the ship was sent at unfathomable speeds. Stars blurred, space became blue. And just as quick as it appeared, it was gone. Normal space appeared, except it wasn't normal in any way. Dozens of unidentified warships guarded the Relay, hundreds of point-defence systems pointed at the intruding ship. Despite their attempts of hiding their nervousness, Diliginia could tell that her crew was nervous. Then again, any sane person would be if an alien armada had their entire arsenal pointed at you. 'May the goddess protect me'

She turned her head toward one the Salarians sitting on the Communications and Information Center "Hold position. Transmit the First Contact Package." 'Hopefully they don't take it as a threat'. Space became silent; no radio signals were transmitted, and even the alien armada seemed to stand still. If people thought that noise couldn't exist in a vacuum, than they'd be surprised by the crew of the 'Wings of Lucen'. Across the bridge of the 'Lucen', no one made a single sound. 'Well since they haven't opened fire yet that means that their open to talking.' After a few minutes of no reply, Diligina began to suspect that maybe the aliens didn't understand or have the capability to translate it, the systems might be incompatible. Before she could continue that line of thinking, a signal was picked up by Communications. "Ma'am were being hailed, visual and audio transmissions." 'That fast huh?' "Put them on screen." Dilignia stepped forward, her blue eyes on the forward view screen, a moment of static passed before she had a view of what she assumed to be, the aliens command deck. But what really got her attention was the alien on the screen.

To her, the alien resembled an asari, similar facial structure, but instead of a cartilage scalp, a brown wire like substance covered her head. Minus those features and her pale skin, Dilignia was looking at a species that could be mistaken for an Asari in a costume. Her posture and form exactly like Dilignia's, add that to the well-fitted uniform, and you could tell that she was the Commanding Officer of the alien fleet. But the moment the fake-asari saw Dilignia she could she her metaphorical mask break, showing the extreme surprise in her face. And just as quick as it came, her face became as solid as stone, keeping her emotions locked from the outside world. But right now Dilignia's next action would change the galaxy, her eyes met the humans and she firmly asked "Do you understand me?"

The human captain looked to at some unseen object to the side before replying. "Yes. Identify yourselves." Dilignia's diplomatic skills came into play, first thing the new species ask was for identification, no doubt there were many hard feelings between these aliens and the turians. No doubt they didn't like being unaware 'Their a lot more similar to us than I thought. "I am Captain Dilignia of the Citadel Diplomatic Vessel 'Wings of Lucen', I am carrying a diplomatic Envoy from the Citadel Council. May I ask who you are?"

"You didn't introduce friends?" The neo-asari's eyes hinted at the suspicion that she held within, no doubt she was waiting for an excuse to open fire. No doubt things were gonna get a little tougher.

"Friends?" Dilignia had no clue what they were talking about, possible scenarios ran through her mind but there was no possible explanation... unless... 'There is no way they could have been that stupid'. "Yes, the two vessels attempting to hide their thermal signatures." 'The goddess-cursed Salarians sent their damn STG ships, probably attempting to record the alien's ships while hiding under her ship' "They're part of our escort team, unfortunately it seems that the Captains forgot to turn off their cloaking capabilities." 'Those two-bit sons of a Lysthenis compromised the damn talks.' "We understand" was the delayed response. "And we are curious, what is this Citadel that you mentioned?" Now it was time for the diplomats to talk, up first came one of the Asari Matriarchs, "Hello, I'm Asari Matriarch Neyalda Armagaya, I represent the Asari for the Citadel Council." The neo-asari nodded her head, so Neyalda continued her introduction. "We are here to end hostilities between the Turian Hierarchy and your species. By the way what do you name yourselves?"

"Whelp, this just went above my paygrade; Ma'am, sir, whatever your respective pronoun may be. We have our own first contact package, already translated into your language for your convenience. If you are okay with it, we'd like to send it and let your- The fake asari paused, trying to pronounce words that were new to her mouth "sel-air-rian STG analysts read it, until our diplomatic envoy shows up that is." Only the ingrained training kept within the Lucen's crew, kept them from gasping in surprise."Please do not attempt to move, our diplomatic team will be here shortly." And with that the visual and audio feed cut off. "Well…that could have gone much worse" She said to no one in particularly. "Comms get me a signal to the recon ships, and I don't care if I don't have the clearance. I want their captains on now." She made sure to say the final part with a little extra anger, making sure that the Comm Officer understood how much the situation meant to her. No one was gonna ruin this for her, especially not the spirits-damned STG. She walked out of the bridge and straight to the communications room; leaving the bridge's crew running around to do their job.

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Codex

ARMSOC: Alliance Reconnaissance Marine Corp Support Operations Command is a division of the Alliance Military Support Operations Command. It is responsible for the protection and security of high-value personal of Alliance Command within hostile environments. Other core capabilities include ground reconnaissance, specialized insertion and extraction of specialized skills officers. No expense is spared for men and woman of ARMSOC, they carry the most advanced equipment in order to complete highly sensitive missions. Standard issue equipment includes EPM4s, 2nd-Gen ACRs, Atlas 50s, and XSO-12 exosuits.

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Trust me, I'm working on it. If anyone knows of any good betareaders please do tell me.


	5. Chapter 5: Tier 1

**08:39 11/20/2157- Citadel Council Chambers**

The news had been found on every website out there in the extranet, a "New species discovered by Turians, diplomatic talks are underway". There was little more Councilor Tevos knew besides the usual things. These humens were a very reclusive species, attempts to garner more information about their history or technology have been met with a simple, but firm "no". Diplomatic talks got somewhere earlier, they apparently would be more than happy to send a diplomatic envoy to the Citadel, but as usual, wouldn't give much information about themselves. Standard protocols stated the usual, two escort ships and the diplomatic envoy would be the only thing allowed to enter Citadel Space anymore then that would be considered an act of war. A formal cessation of cease-fire would be drawn up within this room, and then the invitation to join the Citadel Council would be offered after Peace talks.

At the current moment all three councilors were planning for the following meeting. Tevos was taking care of how the talks were gonna go. Valern was planning the intelligence portion of the meeting, scanners were being set up around the Citadel Council to analyze their technology. Spartacus was probably the most active, with all of his time focused on the security aspects of the talks. The Councilors didn't want any Shadow Broker agents to be infiltrating this one, but then again that would be the same as suggesting that the Terminus Systems would happily become part of the Citadel Council for no cost. But they had to try anyway.

Introducing a species to the civilized galaxy is an easy thing to do, getting them to trust them is the hard part. The rules of doing so are simple, analyze, impress, and then make an offer. Figure out what your opponent wants, eliminate all other possibilities sources so they have to rely on you, and then offer it to them, at a price of course. It was all simple politics.

Unfortunately it was not that simple this time, no one knows what the humans want, not even the Shadow Broker, and that made them a threat. At the current moment, Valern knew a small portion of the human's military capability; they can detect the STG's most up-to-date spyships. They defeated the Turian patrol fleet that attacked them, and managed to capture a unknown number of turian soldiers in the process. Their counter-intelligence capabilities were relatively strong, but stood no chance to the STG cyber warfare division and some useful information was uncovered though infiltration probes. As it turns out, the small patrol fleet was the entire sum of their armed forces. They only had two planets under their control, the colony world the turians invaded, and their homeworld "Eden Prime". Supposedly they only have been in space for 50 or so of their human years. Unusually, everything else was harder to infiltrate, for some reason any attempts to probe the human ships for further information would cause the STG probes to self-destruct, no doubt a matter of compatibility issues. Some agents said otherwise, but no species would be so ignorant to create Artificial Intelligences right?

Yet for all this, Councilor Tevos was far from afraid. Years of galactic politics tends to do that, especially when your words dictate the lives of billions and your actions affect hundreds of planets. Tevos was sitting down on her couch in her personal chamber undisturbed. For the past few cycles, she has been trying to figure out how exactly to move forward with the little information she had. Contingency plans, preparations for the event peace talks broke down flew though her mind. Her line of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door. This early in the morning? Hopefully one of her personal assistants, C-Sec wouldn't have allowed anyone else to be near here. Unless it was a Spectre, which was the last thing she needed right now. After answering with a simple "Who is it?" the careful opening of the door signaled the entrance of one of Tevos's personal assistants.

"Councilor…" started the tiny, soft almost childish voice of the assistant. "…I have a Priority 1 datapad for you." The smaller blue assistant walked over to the Councilor before Tevos took the datapad out of his hands. "Thank you Nyxeris." Tevos.

"No problem Councilor, it is my honor to be of assistance." replied the younger asari.

Tevos quickly focused her attention on the datapad in her hands as soon as Nyxeris left. She placed her hand on datapad, it initialized a biometric scan, and after a moment of waiting allowed access to the classified data within. Her quarters instantly went into lockdown, there was no possible way that the Shadow Broker or any unsuspecting ears could listen. And even if there was someone trying to listen in, the ruthless Spectres would handle it.

Her eyes quickly scanned the contents within the datapad, it was an update of all important activities going on in the galaxy. Spectre operations, some reports by STG agents, a few scientific breakthroughs, Quarian Migrant Fleet status, actions that were all just part of the larger scheme of things in the Galaxy. But it was on the last folder, under the name of "Daily Spiritual Guide" that her attention was fished in, into a metaphorical net. Tevos knew what "Daily Spiritual Guide" actually meant, it was an update over the Prothean Beacon in the Temple of Athene in Thessia, and apparently they found something new…

**20:12 11/27/2157- Alliance Diplomatic Mission [Citadel Presidium]**

"Hostiles on your three!" The call out was followed by the barrel flash of an Adaptive Combat Rifle. The flash was met with the spray of an alien's blue blood flying through the air. Raptor ran and slid up the fallen mass accelerator weapon of his most recent kill.

"Hostile down! Guardian whats our exfil status?" Before he could respond dozens of sand-sized grains impacted straight into Guardian's body, exiting straight through whatever bloody mess remained and into the wall behind him. 'Damn it!' "Guardian down I repeat Guardian down!"

"Sandy cover Angel!" The order was met with the digitized voice of the only female on the team "Affirmative, moving n-" Before she could move any further, a large mass accelerator round entered her head, splitting her helmet in half, sending bits of skull and grey matter all around the dull metal colored floor.

Raptor quickly sprinted towards the cover that Angel was using for cover. He slid into the small space near her, hypervelocity rounds barely missing his armored form. His threat scanner screaming into his helmet that critical threats lied everywhere within sight. Currently there were multiple turians with massive sniper rifles standing on the catwalks, firearms pointed directly at the cover he was using. Asari commandos flanked him, hiding behind cover. But even the hypersonic kinetic rounds employed by the Citadel Military could not pierce the thick metal.

Others stood waiting for Raptor or Angel to stick their heads out. Armored shuttles moved around his position, with the equivalent of high-caliber turrets aimed at them. The perfect killbox, any movement, and the space he is in would be filled with thousands of hypervelocity rounds, each capable of shredding unarmored humans like a shotgun through a melon. Ask any soldier how they would describe the situation, the answer would most likely be "FUBAR".

Raptor turned his helmeted head towards "Angel", and waited for the sound that would end this nightmare.

"End simulation."

The noise echoed through the chamber for everyone to hear. Michael shook his head as the large open space began to transform.

The walls and floor slowly turned into blue squares, the dead alien bodies disappeared, Guardian and Sandy's body returned to their normal shape, and as they stood up, they began shaking their bodies. "I don't think we could have gotten any closer" Sandy began. The room's cluttered space in the meanwhile started to disappear, reverting back to the simple squared walls of the Combat Simulation Room they were in.

Raptor shook his head, before asking Guardian "How far away were we this time?"

"1400 meters. Doesn't matter, defenses would have theoretically shot down our exfil by the time we would have gotten there anyway. There is no way for us to actually escape the center of the Galaxy without some XOS-12s or thousands of marines. Guardian took off his angled helmet, showing off his green eyes and sandy blond hair. The simulation room's large doors opened, and in came numerous technicians and engineers, who were preparing for the next simulation run.

Raptor's TACPAD buzzed as message came through. "Looks like the boss wants us in the conference room. Now." The two men (and woman) team left through the large gun-grey doors and began their journey to the armory.

"You know what the diplomats said-" Raptor put his hands up in a quoting motion "-only one ship. And all of our toys gotta stay behind, HQ doesn't want those frogboys to analyze our tech." Within the last two weeks, Alliance Intelligence had been analyzing the little amount of Turian data that they could recover from "informal interviews with Turian soldiers" and their little arm wrist computers. It led to the knowledge of the Salarian's Special Task Group and the Turian's language.

The synchronized footsteps echoed through the empty hallway. The armory doors, two large slabs of two feet thick maraging steel was the only thing standing between the three soldiers, and the entrance to one of the most up-to-date weapon storage facilities on Earth. They took out their weapon's magazines, walked towards "the cage" and handed their weapons to the Armory Specialist, an elderly brown man with bright youthful hazel eyes, before entering the locker room and changing out of their recon armor. Compared to the thick-armored Alliance Marine combat armor, recon armor was designed with two purposes in mind, stealth and speed. Threat sensors and grenades could not detect the user of recon armor. The lightweight but sturdy design ensured protection against low-threat small arms but was much more lightweight for increased mobility.

Minutes later, they exited the locker room, entering the vast hallways of the Interplanetary Combative Academy once again. For the past fifty years, the ICA has been the hallmark for the development of the very best soldiers that have ever existed; Special Forces are constantly training within the many simulation rooms of the Academy. If you were to look out the window, you would see Warhawks hovering around, drone escorts circling around them like vultures around a dying prey. The faints rays of the setting sun giving the usual gun grey wings a brighter and slightly rosy color. Soldiers in angular high-tech exoskeletons, jumped twenty feet in the air and sprinted faster than ever deemed possible before. The one characteristic that each one of the operatives had in common was the fact that they we're wearing XOS-12s, the latest in exo-suits. Made out of ceramic metal alloys, the exoskeleton itself is lightweight, very durable and is designed to provide resistance against sonic-based weaponry.

The three-man group, also known to the rest of the Alliance command as a ARMSOC fireteam continued their journey through the ICA, paying very few glances towards the training soldiers. Within time they reached the expensive wooden doors of the main conference room. Passing by two men in black and yellow security armor, they moved at attention as soon as the fireteam passed by.

But their stance and serious faces did not pass by Raptor so easily; he could see that they tense. Whoever was behind those doors, meant serious business, or was some high-ranking Alliance bureaucrat looking for a position into politics as soon as he retires. Behind Raptor he could hear Guardian comment "You think the President or some other useless bureaucrat is in there?"

As soon as the luxurious mahogany colored doors ingrained with the Alliance symbol opened, they were greeted by the sight of four-high ranking Alliance Officers, the golden stripes identifying each one of them as Admirals of the Alliance. At the end of the large wooden table sat a woman in a professional dark-grey blouse, her brown eyes, cold and serious. Attractive facial features easily gave her the appearance of someone who belonged in a runway show, but the expression on her face saying otherwise. Raptor and the rest of his team immediately saluted to some of the most powerful individuals in the history of mankind.

"Take a seat marines." ordered the man on the furthest side on the table. His thick Russian accent instantly registered with the brains of all three fireteam members, each responding by taking the empty seats nearest to them.

The man that spoke wore a wrinkleless blue uniform; four golden lines ran along the length of his shoulders, symbols to the power he possessed. The man, burned into every Alliance Marine's memory, known as Fleet Admiral Alexander Bestuchev. His balding head consisting of criss-crossing scars, his small grey eyes, the firm square jaw, testaments to the fact that the man had been through much war in his younger years.

"Good afternoon gentlemen, as you can see this meeting is very important. I feel that there is no need to introduce ourselves since you already know who we are, but just incase you got us confused with 'just another group of bureaucrats-" Guardian's facial expression was priceless. Never before had someone's jaw fallen to the floor so quickly. But the Admiral ignored it as if the acknowledgement of the marine's comment was but nothing. "- I would like to introduce Anita Goyle, our ambassador to this Citadel Council."

Raptor knew what was coming next. The fact that the four highest ranking admirals in the Alliance and the diplomatic ambassador for a meeting between a galactic empire was here meant that the mission that they had been training for weeks was close to happening.

The hard-faced woman stood up. Her voice was musical and steady. "We've seen your simulation runs, each of you has rised above the others, even more so when the three of you displayed those heroics during the Alexandria firefights. These two things alone have placed you above everyone else."

Anita paused, "I need the best. And that is you."

"Sirs, who else is going to be our backup in the event things get bad?"

Each admiral turned to each other. Before one of the admirals, a large, burly man, his hair well trimmed, a 5 o'clock shadow barely showing. "That information is above Top Secret. But do not worry, everyone is coming back home."

Despite the Admiral's best attempt to keep his face stoic, Raptor could pick up the signals his body and face was giving. Obviously he didn't feel comfortable sharing that small piece of information, but the question was why? Looking around, Raptor could also see each Admiral do the exact same…

"Let us begin…"

**04:12 11/27/2157- Mikel 20, Red Reavers [Metro-2] **

They killed everyone. Holy shit they killed them, he saw them do it. And now everyone was fighting for their lives. Who "they" were wasn't clear, but Dmitri was more than happy to clarify.

"It's the fucking aliens man!" But his "logical conclusion" did little to help out with the tense situation. Even more worrisome was the fact that there was only one exit out of the room, and currently there were over five men with illegally-owned M8A2 assault rifles. That alone was punishable with 20 years in a high-security prison without trial. And that was without actually using the weapon, firing the weapon, would place an immediate kill-or-capture order for your head by local law enforcement. This meant that everyone in the room would be screwed if the Police came in. But the worst part came in the form of a package that they were all currently assigned to protect, the punishment for possession of such an item would probably be a lifetime spent in an Alliance Torture room.

It was supposed to be a simple job, escort the package through the underground tunnels, and protect it until one of the bosses' lieutenants picked it up. Whatever it was he knew it was valuable, there was no other need to have so much firepower. Next thing you know, people stop reporting in, one of the tunnels was blocked. One by one people stopped reporting in until it came to the only people personally protecting the package.

Attempts to radio in the situation to any remaining gang members were blocked by some kind of jamming interference. This entire situation screamed that it was inside job; it was too quick and quiet to be a normal police unit. The possibilities raced through Mikal's head, could be the remnants of the mafia or an Alliance Peacekeeper team. Regardless things weren't looking too good, and they were about to get much worse. Because, the lights in the room suddenly blew up, leaving everyone in the dark.

"Put your goggles on!" ordered Malchovich 3. As commanded, Mikel and Dmitri immediately placed night-vision goggles over their eyes, highlighting everything in a green, almost eerie light.

And then a loud noise suddenly came from behind them. Everyone instantly pointed weapons at the origin of the noise. It was Dmitri, who had accidently knocked down one of the crates behind him, spilling its dark colored contents all over the floor.

"I'm about to shoot you Dmitri!" whispered one of the other henchmen in the room.

"I'm sorry comrade, just slip-" he would never finish the sentence as the metal door in the room was torn off its frame and sent flying into Dmitri, crushing him with the force of a truck. Mikel dropped his weapon out of surprise and reached down to pick it up. That very action saved his life as a blue light cut through the air right above where his head was before, the result of a monomolecular blade going through the air at superhuman speed. But the man next to Mikel was not so lucky, as his head fell clean off.

Bullet casings spilled out of Malchovich and his remaining henchmen's assault rifles, their fingers holding down the triggers. Yet their reactions were too slow, as another blue blur hit Malchovich. Everything slowed down as Mikel saw Malchovich flying into a wall with a sick crunch, marking his demise. The man next to where Malchovich was managed to fire two rounds before a blue glowing fist entered through his body and pulled his spine out from the front, brutally ending his life.

All of this happened in the span of two seconds.

"I surrender! I surrender please don't kill me!" Mikel pleaded. It was at the moment where he got a clearer look at who had attacked. The blue flash dissipated, and in its place was a crouched humanoid figure, blue smoke coming off its form. The figure quickly rose up at its full height at just over 6 feet tall, while that was nowhere near intimidating by itself, the fact that the figure had managed to kill everyone and seemingly teleport in a few blinks of an eye did.

The speed it showed was unhuman, as it quickly pulled out its sidearm and aimed it at Mikel's head.

A bright yellow flash was the last thing he ever saw.

* * *

**souvikkundu0017: Total number of human planets? Colonized (including Earth and Mars): Officially there are 5 planets and 12 moons/ Surveyed: Around 30 planets and many more moons**


	6. Chapter 6: Sentinel

"...our new XOS-12s make our soldiers more effective in ways that could not even have been imagined 15 years ago. With the new ceramic-metallic alloy, state-of-the-art streamlined design, and the advanced TX-14 micro-fusion reactors installed within the exoskeleton powerpack, the XOS-12 has a 50% increase in fuel cell life, while also giving an additional 30% increase in speed and strength compared to the previous generation of exosuit, the XOS-11. Live testings have shown…"

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**12/23/2157- Michael Shepard [Eden Prime]...**

The café was a good choice for the date despite the many large grey masses of water vapor that floated in the afternoon sky. The birds were chirping and the various imported wild-life could be seen traveling through the hundreds of kilometers of green fields. Tall, ugly Arcologies could be seen in the distance, disrupting the natural image that the fantastic fields gave. Luckily, in the industrial capitol of Constant, you didn't have to worry about any grey towers interfering with your view. The temperature was a crisp seventy degrees Fahrenheit, just right for Michael Shepard or anyone who was a local on this side of Eden Prime.

He quickly glanced at his watch, an Atlas Vindego, a gift from his dad. It was one of the last things that kept the memory of his long-since deceased dad alive. He also decided to take a look at his new prosthetic hand, after the battle of Shanxi, the wounded warriors program of Atlas corporation located him and all the other marines and soldiers involved in combat and did what they could to help him. Compared to others he had it easy, next to his cot in the hospital were others who had lost a lot more than just a hand. Others lost their faces, some limbs, and a few were halves of their body. The unfortunate cost of war, Michael and everyone involved in the fighting would without a doubt hate the Turians forever. The hate was not simple silent rage, it was the kind that could transcend lifetimes, and be felt everywhere across time and space. His thoughts were disrupted as a figure entered his sight.

The sight Michael that caught his attention wasn't the deer-like entities walking through the tight streets or the floating sacs that were existent to nowhere but Eden Prime's ecological environment. Oh no, it was the growing sight of a woman, long red-hair flowing through the wind, walking towards his direction. Her choice of clothing, a nice white dress with red lines running through the side barely hid her shapely figure.

"Hey there handsome." Began the woman as soon as she entered within range of sound.

Yet this was no ordinary woman, to Michael it was his newfound love, the piece that kept his clock moving forward, the reason he woke up every morning. Ever since the time spent in the hospital together, Hannah and Michael became inseparable. The hardships they faced being the catalyst to what would become a very long and loving relationship.

She pulled up a seat right next to him after what seemed like only a second.

"Hey there beautiful" replied Michael. And in response Hannah gave a quick kiss to Michael. Just like Michael she didn't come off unscathed either, 3rd degree burns lay all over her back, and heavy burns lied under the few derma-straps on her face. Derma-straps induced a very temporary cellular regeneration effect caused by derma-gel within the straps; given enough straps and time, derma-gel would be able to solve any skin injury.

"You have no idea how long it took to get here. I had to go back to my apartment and switch out of my uniform. EVERYONE is freaking out about the whole Shanxi invasion. It's all people are talking about these days. Turians this, turians that." began Hannah.

It was funny to think about, humanity has only been aware of aliens for over a month. Today, every first contact soldier was virtually a superstar, everyone wanted to talk to them, everyone wanted their autograph, and everyone wanted to touch them. It was impossible to walk through the streets; everyone would immediately stop what they were doing and stare at the men and woman in uniform. Woman in business suits would get off their comm devices, Police officers would stop giving tickets upon the sigt of their warrior brethren, and some people would give up their first class seats to Marines sitting in the economy class of airships. Never before had soldiers received such high levels of respect, ask any young child what they wanted to be, and the answer you would receive from them would most likely be "an Alliance Marine". Currently, it was impossible to enlist, because by the time you got half way through the recruiting office line, the place would have closed down due to giving out all their papers already. Enlistment demographics already predict a 150% increase in personal this year. The weapons industry was pumping out as much arms and armor as they could. For the first time in a very long time, humanity had a common enemy, a threat that everyone shared.

The attention and respect was nice addition too, one that Michael felt was long overdue.

"I'm curious to see what this Citadel Council has to say when the Grissom gets to their Capitol." Stated Shepard. The menace behind his voice could be easily detected even by the deaf. He was very curious to how the aliens were going to justify their attack on a new undiscovered species. The battle for Shanxi had cost too many soldiers, too much for Michael.

"Ah cheer up, whats the worst that could hap-". Hannah stopped talking as she noticed something behind Michael. He quickly turned his head to search for whatever had caught Hannah's attention…and it didn't take long. A dark man with a long black coat and black shades was quickly walking towards their direction and in his hands was a black leather briefcase.

* * *

**12/29/2157- SSV Jon Grissom[Council Space]...**

The SSV Jon Grissom silently cut through the stardust in vacant space, its grey-blue hull shining against the light of an unexplored system's sun. The SSV Jon Grissom was carrying over two thousand of humanities best and brightest. With thick armor and some of the most advanced weapons created by man, it was a force to be reckoned with. Named after the ship captain who lead the exploration through the Mass Relay routes ,the 1.9 kilometer long vessel was prepared for all possible situations, whether it be encountering hostile aliens, uncovering a long-extinct civilization's ruins, every possibility was encountered for and tended to. It boasted two Arclight railguns that ran through the length of the ship, each capable of gutting any Citadel Council dreadnought from bow to stern. Among its arsenal, were multiple point-defense gatling lasers, numerous SSDSs (Space-based Ship Defense Systems) and for last resort, a small armament of Olympus-class nuclear missiles.

The Jon Grissom was large, armored and single-handedly capable of leaving a small moon uninhabitable for thousands of years. And this was all without including its large drone capacity. Iinfact simulations predicted that if you were to place the 5th fleet against the SSV Jon Grissom alone, it would win three out of five times. Scars stood out on its surface, for the Jon Grissom had attended the first battle against aliens over Shanxi.

And like sharks surrounding its prey, were two Aegea-class escort ships, each at almost two hundred meters across. With a 120mm railgun autocannon, and an advanced CIWS- laser point defense suite; combined with its sheer speed and ability to out run every possible ship ever encountered, each Aegea-class ship was more than capable of dishing out enough firepower to melt down entire asteroids as proven during the Alexandria Firefights, or completely outmaneuver turian frigates as shown over Shanxi.

But despite how much the unique sharp edges represented, it would do very little against an escort fleet that numbered in the thirties. Due to the very limited speed provided by human inertialess drives, it would take much longer than the average Council vessel to travel across the galaxy. And because of that, the Council had decided to provide protection to the System's Alliance diplomatic convoy; ironically it was the turians who were doing most of the work. But a hidden agenda hid beneath the thin veil of diplomacy, they were also trying to keep the human fleet under watch, STG agents currently analyzing everything they could find through ultra-tight beam scans on the super-dense hull.

For now, the turians only had to protect the relays for three more days until the SSV Jon Grissom and its escorts entered Citadel space, where they would begin diplomatic talks with some of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy. Within a few moments, they would reach the systems relay and enter the next checkpoint to the alien's capitol, where the Council ships guarding the relay and its identical twin would leave the large convoy and return to their normal patrols.

On the board the gigantic vessel, navy personal in dark blue walked around the decks, marines checked and customized their equipment; and an ARMSOC team quietly ate in the spacious mess hall that conceded within the center of the ship, right below the bridge.

"Entering next Relay in thirty seconds." Declared the ship's warmind, whose words were soon followed by the pause in eating as every ARMSOC marine awaited the jolt and quick feeling of acceleration from entering Relay transit. Already, Guardian had placed down his biodegradable food tray as he had already learned the hard way that eating while flying at unfathomable speeds was a bad idea. For the first time in his whole experience of travelling space, he had to change out black and red fatigues for the second time in a day as his last uniform was covered in green/brown stickiness.

An educational experience.

Raptor felt his stomach turn inside out for a moment as the jolt everyone had been waiting for came. For a second it felt as if he weighed nothing, and then just a fast as it came the experience suddenly stopped. No klaxons screamed. No emergency lights came to life. It was another safe-transit. Raptor looked up at the screen at the end of one of the walls; it featured the location and surrounding space of the Jon Grissom at the current moment. A giant blue star gave off incredible amounts of radiation and heat, preventing the few small planetoids orbiting it from ever achieving the universe's greatest gift, life. Scans were showing all escort ships had made it safe, that the journey to the next transit would take an estimated an estimated fourteen hours, depending on how bad the solar winds were and numerous other factors that Raptor just didn't have the degree to even name.

A TARS-series robot appeared out a doorway near the same place Raptor was looking. It's four "legs", if that is what you would call the rectangular sections that divided its entire body, allowed it to reach the seated Raptor and his hungry team. Its large 7 foot plank-like chassis, and strictly utilitarian appearance could intimidate anyone. However for Raptor, who had fought with a TARS himself during the Alexandria firefights, he had long since lost his fear over combat-bots and had gained a major respect and like for the sarcastic and witty machines.

"Fireteam Saber, your presence is requested on the firing deck immediately." It didn't take much to understand that by "request" the TARS actually meant '_get your ass here right now'_. Sandy and Guardian immediately nodded their heads in response and picked up their black trays, walking up to a trash bin located near a group of marines who were laughing to some joke one of them made. Raptor, already finished with his food, began to walk towards the hall, heading towards the elevator.

"The 'Imperial Admiral' awaits us Fireteam Lion." Raptor could hear Sandy try to hide her giggle when the TARS used the Captain's nickname. It seemed that the humor configuration was activated on this one too.

After a few minutes of slow elevator travelling, the elevator doors had slid open revealing the 'firing deck', to Fireteam Saber and their metallic escort. The 'The firing deck' could best be described as a large, dim holographic simulated firing range spanning over fifty different target lanes with an automated practice house for in-depth tactical training. Environmental conditions could be simulated, snow, ice, desert, anything you could think of could be fabricated in this very room. TARS quickly exited the elevator and moved to the right towards firing lanes the further half of the lanes… where gunfire could be heard coming from.

The moment Raptor exited the elevator he could see two men in blue uniforms under the marked lanes "26", watching a darkened figure firing some kind of strange weapon. It sounded electronic, probably one of those new metal-storm weapons he had been hearing about. Both men wore the standard dress blues that all officers wore. What was not so standard was the Unit patch that they each had on their shoulders, a Spartan helmet featuring wings on each end, with two lightning bolts between the helmet and the wings. Finally right on the top of the helmet, in bold letters, read "SENTINEL TASK FORCE".

No numbers. No nametags. Not even rank to identify them. Nothing, except those never-before-seen patches. There was no other clue to identify who the hell they were.

"Who are you guys?" questioned Guardian in a cautious tone. Nothing here felt right.

Before anyone could say anything, the digitalized voice of TARS spoke first, closing the distance between both of them. "Fireteam tiger meet Sentinel task force. Sentinel task force meet fireteam feline. Now that you're both acquainted I it would be appropriate if we explained why you-" TARS pointed one of his 'limbs" toward Fireteam Saber's direction. "-are here."

TARS turned around. Not that he needed to, his visual sensors could see anyone from up to fifty kilometers away in a 360 degree line of sight.

An authoritative voice spoke out, originating from one of the two dressed men. "Fireteam Saber it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Commander Mitchell…" The name and face registered somewhere but Raptor couldn't quite place it. The gaze from Commander Mitchell's bright blue eyes met with Sandy's bright brown, a glint of attraction appeared within his eyes. After a cough from the uniformed man next to him, he continued "…I've read your record, two tours in the outer belt? And says here you were involved in the Alexandria firefights?"

Scenes of fires. Collapsing tunnels. The faces of hopeless parents carrying the remains of their children in their hands. Kids trying to wake up their parents after being shot down, all fresh in their minds as if it was only yesterday.

The three soldiers who made up Saber nodded their heads.

"That's some mean-bush." continued Commander Mitchell. The man next to him nodded in agreement.

"Oh apologies, I seem to have forgot to introduce myself. " started 2nd man's voice.

"I'm 1st lieutenant Hackett. At your service." His voice sounded like gravel, harsh but with a certain feel unique to his voice. He sounded confident, sure of his abilities. His dark blue eyes were drowned with intelligence; he was constantly analyzing the ARMSOC team. It wasn't hard to figure out he was the leader-type. Hopefully the good kind.

By now the figure who was on the firing range had stopped, and began walking towards the conversing groups of people, hydraulic noises discerning the usage of an exosuit… yet Raptor couldn't see the outline of any exosuit in the shadows. In fact the more Raptor looked at the figure, the more… no it wasn't possible, the figure began to glow blue, yet the two dressed men ignored it as if it wasn't even there. It kept glowing… the ARMSOC team instinctively placed their hands up in futile protection. The figure continued to glow until in its place was nothing but hot air. It vanished as if it was never there.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" screamed Raptor. The entire ARMSOC team instinctly got into defensive positions, expecting a sudden attack from the phantom like-being. Raptor looked at the faces of both Sentinels; each remained neutral as if expecting that sudden response. No one mentioned anything about fucking ghosts being on the ship.

"We have a lot to talk about." Exclaimed TARS.

* * *

**12/23/2157- Michael Shepard [Eden Prime]...**

Two possibilities proceeded through his mind, the first was that the shady man coming towards him and Hannah, was a spook, the second was an angry Alexandrian "trying to make a point". Those never ended too well for anyone.

Plans raced around, what could Michael use to protect himself? He could use the chair as a club, or if the man had a gun he could flip the small table over to use it as a small wall. But that still left Hannah behind. There were not that many options besides throwing something at the man. So Michael remained seated

Within a matter of moments the blackcoat stood right infront of their table. Now Michael had a much, much closer look at the man. His head was unshaven and full. Tattoos ran across his hands, Michael could not identify what they were as he only got the end of it, which were simple black lines. On his neck however was a whole different story, Michael could see a zip code on the backside of his neck, identifying him as a member of the military. Whether it was previous military or current could only be left to speculation. The man stood there in silence for just another moment before shifting his head down to look at the nervous couple.

He slightly peeled down his shades, flaunting his dark, hard eyes before vocalizing his simple statement.

"I know who you two are…" Michael could see Hannah stiffen. Instinctively he formed a fist with his hand, ready to strike the man down in the event of an attack. But what he said next he did not expect.

"…and I thank you for your service and sacrifices you made." The man looked down at Michael's hand upon finishing his sentence and Michael let out a loud sigh of relief. A little too loud Michael thought, but the man seemed to be unaware of it.

Before Michael or Hannah could reply, the man abruptly left, oblivious to the calls from them to thank him.

Hannah and Michael would continue their day, eating and going out, before retiring at Michael's house for "further activities". Yet throughout the day the mysterious dark skinned man would stay on their minds even upon settling their heads on soft pillows and entering sleep. Even when the creeping clouds of dreams came, it would be of the man. Neither one would ever meet him or find out his identity in their lives.

Had the man not been wearing the long coat but his favorite cut-shirt they would have seen the prosthetic right arm that took the place of his lost original. But more importantly they would have seen the symbolic tattoo of an ancient greek warrior helmet with wings at the tips and lightning bolts on his left arm. His identity would be kept secret for he took off the uniform he wore only a few hours ago… as they would have seen that he too was there during the invasion of Shanxi.

But the man was busy, tasked with escorting some of the most secret information ever known in human history he had a long day ahead. And it would start at the desk of a local hotel, when a young female desk clerk asked him for his name. Upon answering she would see that he had already pre-rented a room for the weekend, and hand him a card specified to him and him only. The man would thank her and continue on his journey to his room on the hundred and second level.

A mostly quiet journey.

He would enter glamorous hallways, constantly used by millionaires, business men and politicians. A mix of yellow and pink would lighten the entire hall way until he came to his room number. He would slide his card, open the golden handles on a reinforced wooden door before being greeted by the room's Virtual Intelligence with a polite and welcoming "Good afternoon Mr. David Anderson."

* * *

**Codex:** TARS ( Tactical Armored Response System) Created in the early 22nd century. The TARS is an automated machine designed specifically to help assist and respond in hostile situations that may be too dangerous for humans to be in alone. While it is rare to see one in a normal civilian location, it is extremely common to see them assigned with the crews of large ships or Special Operation Teams. The thick corrode-resistant super alloys used to make TARS-series robots can survive extreme temperatures from both ends of the spectrum as well as conventional human (and alien) hypervelocity small arms. Defenses like Conducted electrical weapons and sonic suppression devices are common in all of them, what makes Special Force's TARS variant different is unknown to the general public.

* * *

**Request to readers: Hey here's a chance to incorporate one of your creations into the story. I need a badass batarian character, with a description of his/her appearance and background. The more descriptive you get, the better.**


	7. Chapter 7: Hidden Truth

**01/01/2158- SSV Jon Grissom[Council Space]..**.

"Standby for Relay transit." Reported the ship's Warmind. "Entering Widow System in 3, 2, 1…"

Raptor, a veteran ARMSOC Operative, could only sit still as he awaited for the feeling of nausea to pass.

But to pass time on the empty bench, he decided to review the large, almost overwhelming amount of information that he had absorbed within the past few days. For the past twenty years, ARMSOC was believed to have been the forefront of Alliance Special Forces, the best of the best. They got all the latest toys, the most brutal training, and the missions that no other paramilitary organization was capable of completing. Or so that was the belief held by everyone.

Yet only days ago Commander Ryan Mitchell, Great, Great Grandson of the Jack Mitchell, previous CEO and largest shareholder of Atlas Corporation, had told him that none of that was true. For over a hundred years, a coalition of the very best Tier 1 Operatives in existence had been operating in secret.

Their mission in the very beginning of their creation was simple, to protect mankind against the threat imposed by Atlas Corporation. Overtime though the mission changed, with the introduction of and the inertialess drive, society had begun to get more complex. So in response, the Sentinel's mission was changed from simply protecting Earth to protecting all of mankind from all threats, internal and external. They were selected because they were the cheapest, they already had the technology, they already had the skill sets, most nations on Earth supported them already.

But how they managed to operate in secret for so long was the big question.

As far as anyone was concerned they were a very small organization consisting of just over a hundred "Advanced Skills Operators". Officially they didn't exist in Alliance records, all funding and the like were probably handed off to non-existent corporations and programs or just didn't exist at all. But that was all economics. Due to the lack of records, and pretty much non-existent official status, no military leader except Fleet Admiral of the Alliance Navy knew of their existence but even he did not have clearance to access information about them. The Fleet Admiral of the Alliance had a Level 8 clearance, along with the most powerful leaders on Earth, allowing them access to just about everything if it was used to protect humanity. However, there ten levels of clearance, all ranking-military officers knew what level 9 and level 10 gave clearance to was completely unknown to everyone. Only one known individual in human space has a level 10 security clearance, the Director of Alliance Affairs himself. Yet once again, no one knew what it gave him access to.

So that left the question of who had a clearance in level 9, the answer that almost no one knew? The Sentinels. Now the entirety of Fireteam Saber had been offered to join their ranks, to become Sentinels of humanity.

The process for choosing and training Sentinel Operatives was rather simple actually; each Operator was picked from elite special forces across human space. Previous Sentinels would then train them to the absolute highest level of proficiency in the necessary skills of Special Operations; weapons improvised and modern, hand to hand combat, intelligence gathering, cyberwarfare, counter-terrorism, you name it and they were sure to know it. By the end of training, each Sentinel Operator was trained to survive on their own and against impossible odds with nothing but two sticks and a rock.

A tap on his shoulder interrupted his thoughts. It happened to be Guardian in his customized ARMSOC CQB armor. Lighweight ballistic plating with a layer of liquid impact gel covered most of his body. A grey smart vest brilliantly contrasted with the red and dark grays. Mirroring his own, Guardian's helmet was fusion of the standard issue marine helmet and fullface armored faceplate. Add that to the ARMSOC issued multi-spectrum optics (which consisted of five 'eyes', three of them glowing bright orange) The perfect combination of psychological warfare that dehumanized the soldier and instilled fear into enemies.

He stood there looking at Raptor for a quick second before speaking.

"Hey man, I know what you're thinking about but you need to get your head in the game. We can discuss the fundamentals of secret paramilitary groups later." Guardian took a seat right next to him. "But just in case it is not about them, whats going sir?"

"Nothing." Raptor shook his head "Are we ready to move out?" Raptor hadn't seen Sandy for over thirty minutes no, she was no doubt managing final preparations if not waiting for them.

Guardian nodded his head in response. "Yup, Sandy's waiting in hanger two for us along with Ms. Universe." Ms. Universe was the nickname Guardian gave to Ambassador Goyle after deciding that she was too much into herself.

Raptor quickly checked his own armor, a quick adjustment on chin guards assured him that everything was in working order. Guardian stood up in response, anticipating Raptor's next words.

"Lets not leave them waiting any longer." Before they knew it they began their advance to the lower levels of the SSV Jon Grissom.

It only took a few minutes for Fireteam Saber to travel from the main elevator to the hanger bay, where they would deploy from. The little walk contained only silence, as everyone contemplating how the meeting with the alien's leaders would go. Could humans really live in piece with aliens.

Trailing behind Sandy and Guardian, Raptor saw a sight in the hanger that would make any military officer proud. Sailors passed around him as they rushed to their battle stations, marines in full gear began setting up pre-fabricated combat barriers; placing themselves around defensive positions in preparation of a boarding attempt. Hundreds of Unmanned Aerial Drones were prepped for combat. Raptor was proud at the way each man and woman worked together as a single coherent unit working towards the same goal.

Vacuum-rated Warhawks laid side by side, technicians doing final adjustments upon their armored wings. Warhawks were the larger, badass brothers of their previous iteration of main aerial attack vehicle used by marines and PMCs. Armed assault drones flew themselves into empty vehicles, neatly storing themselves until they would be called upon.

Raptor could see a TARS robot waiting at the back of one of the Warhawks. With a 'wave' with its arm signifying his attention of greeting, the TARS called out to them. "Ah, Fireteam Thundercat. It's nice to see you again."

With a quick reply, Raptor replied "You too TARS".

Behind TARS, Raptor could see Sandy sitting next to their target in the cargo hold, her 'eyes' on Raptor and hands near her weapon. Despite the fact that this was one of the most secure ships in the Alliance they couldn't take a chance if someone decided to sabotage this diplomatic mission, that was another reason for why they chose TARS to go with the envoy.

As soon as everyone entered the Warhawk Raptor noticed how empty the shuttle truly was. It was designed to hold up to fifteen fully armored marines, right now it held only a third of that. Raptor spoke out "I'm going to assume everybody had been debriefed right?" Affirmatives from everyone in the shuttle confirmed it. "Are ready to deploy then?" Similar gestures established that they were.

The intercom clicked once, than twice before a voice spoke out, "Sir, Command is asking if we are ready to deploy?"

Raptor took a quick look around, Sandy ran through equipment checks through her helmet. Ambassador Goyle straightened her blue Alliance jumpsuit. Guardian took a seat across from Goyle, next to Raptor. Minus the small indications of nervousness, fidgeting here, constant adjusting of the weapon's sights, everyone seemed ready to go.

"Affirmative pilot. Get us moving." TARS just stood, 'watching' as the ramp closed.

The shuttle shook as it began to lift off. Two nearby shuttles did the same but instead of carrying diplomats one stored assault drones, the other stored something much more deadlier.

All three ships left the hanger bay and entered the bright colored void...

* * *

**01/01/2158 - ?**

The room was not large, far from it. Wooden panels covered the walls. Twelve lavish leather seats surrounded a polished rosewood meeting table that centered the room. Inlaid within the top of the table was a black omega like diamond surrounded by two orange chevrons. Besides that the table was empty save for a used ashtray. Cigarette smoke filled the air, providing a sweet smell to the otherwise dry, filtered air. Darkness pervaded every inch of the room.

Compared to the previous room's iterations, the suited man who occupied one of the few chairs preferred this one. The brown and black brought a tasteful, almost luxurious feeling to the room. It was simple, yet it spoke wonders about how dark and serious the room was.

His steely blue eyes scanned the holopad in his hands; there had been an update over the status of SSV Jon Grissom and its significant cargo.

Just another piece of information he wanted to know before starting the meeting. After all information was power. The man currently awaited for the presence of others, prestigious men who were just like him. Men with power, influence over their lives and others. A slight buzz and vibration alerted him to his awaiting compatriots.

Quantum Entanglement Communicators lodged into the dark colored seats revealed the sapphire figures of some of the most influential individuals in history. Green lights on the chairs confirming that everyone's signal was clear and secure from any possible outside listeners. There were rooms all like this, across Alliance Space.

Blue holograms appeared in the seats of every chair. First came an elderly man, older then life itself. His status as one of the Co-CEO of Atlas Corporation was known by everyone who was anyone.

Another man, younger but almost old, and not unlike the elderly man himself, he too was Co-CEO of Atlas. But unlike the first elderly man, this one was the leading scientist in the field of medicine, theoretical and modern. Products like derma-straps, cellular regeneration fluid, cryo-like stasis, all the result of his slowly aging mind.

Unfortunately, two members remained absent due to the unique set of circumstances they had found themselves to be in. Onyx's current location remained to be on board the nearly completed Arcturus station, where Onyx was being 'interviewed' by an Artificial Intelligence Evaluation team. Unknown to them though, he had sent a slave copy of himself on board the SSV Jon Grissom to evaluate the military aspects of the Citadel Council in their little 'Citadel'

As for the only female member of the council of five, she was currently completing her mission.

It was only two months ago where they had met up in this very room. Not physically of course. What they discussed back then would, for the first time in those two months, be brought back into light. A light that very few people would even be aware of, .

The suited man began with a puff of his cigarette. "It seems we made some progress in Phase II."

The medical prodigy known as Dr. Karl Rasch replied next, "Initial tests have all come back positive. We've successfully adapted it to the turians."

No one cheered or made any noise, but the silence got the message across 'Good.'

His Austrian-German accent continuing "Now the problem is keeping Phase II secret while distributing it. The Alliance would surely notice if we started the production on an industrial scale. Do you have any facilities that could be used?"

The suited man took a puff of his cigarette before blowing out cherry scented smoke. "I have a few locations in mind for where we can start, far from the prying eyes of the Alliance."

The next question came from the man 'sitting' next to Dr. Rasch, "Are you telling me that you've explored space outside of the Alliance's reach or at least their capabilities? That's very good planning even for you Jack."

He allowed the faintest of smiles to appear across his lips. 'If only they knew.'

"Well, considering my modestly large amount of assets..."

Even the Great man allowed himself a small laugh. "So it would seem Jack. So it would seem. But how about the aliens?"

Th blue-eyed man was prepared for that exact question. "Their not interested. Each location that I have picked and chosen, is located so far from the relay gates that it would cost a fortune for them to travel to it. They also contain nothing of value, making them ideal for our needs."

This had both elderly men's attention. "What are the names for these facilities?" asked Jacob.

More smoke crowded the air. "Sanctum will be our best choice for Phase II due to it's isolated nature. I'm sending you details now." With a quick tap of a button, the information was sent directly to the others through quantum entangled particles.

The suited man continued "I have other locations in mind such as Lazarus and Minutemen but the details of that can be discussed later."

While Karl was looking into the data over Sanctum and other locations, Jacob took the chance to ask questions of his own, over Jack's other projects. "Whats the status of the Gen-2 project?"

At this point the suited man's cigarette remained to be half its original size.

"Onyx had been more then willing to provide us with all the necessary motion capture data, advanced squad tactics and training from Alliance Special Forces. When you include our recent breakthroughs into swarm intelligence, the end result is the next generation of infantry warfare. I've already begun production of the very first Gen-2 units in one of my facilities."

"Indeed, well done. " Not that he needed to, but Jacob gestured to one of the empty chairs around the table. A new addition to what was previously five."Now the question is, where is our sixth member?"

For a moment the suited man stopped smoking, placing the cigarette between his fingers into the ashtray. The addition of a sixth member changed everything, originally the five only had influence, a considerable amount, over the political, economical and military aspects of humanity. But with the addition of the sixth seat, they now had power in a new, and previously unachievable, sphere of influence, religion.

Due to the large changes in society since humanity publicly discovered they were not alone in the universe. Most religious organizations had faced a crisis, with the sudden changes faced in the way of thinking, large religious institutions like the Catholic Church, Islamic religion, and Christian states have experienced downfalls in their membership. Especially with the public statement made by Pope Alexander VIII himself 'denying the existence of extraterrestrials and any that existed were manifestations created by the devil', billions dropped their adopted religion and attempted to find a new one that would fit their beliefs.

First Contact with the turians had resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands. Humanity was restless, angry, and hateful of the newly discovered aliens. So in response a new religious movement was founded by a young woman, The Order. It zeroed in on those universal principles that would help achieve peace of mind, body and spirit; it attracted those who were confused and lived in a constant state of hear, those who had lost faith and hope in humanity, those who could feel the pressure of an impending alien invasion that would destroy humanity. It blended in aspects of every religion, Hindu, Buddhism, Christianity, etc. Its beliefs appealed to the common man, it brought peace to those who believed and sought to live happier lives. But unfortunately the founder lacked the funds, lacked the contacts, and with new movements rising and falling everyday, her dreamchild seemed doom to fail but the Council of Five saw. Her ideals were sound, her intentions were good, but above all she virtually did not exist, no one knew her, this was the chance to expand and still remain in the shadows.

So with their vast resources and power, they funded her, gave her life. Competing religious organizations would suddenly fall, paving the way for her to take over. And one by one, smaller religions were consumed by the ever-growing wave, and like wildfire the movement had grown from unnoticeable thousands in a single city, to over sixty million members covering all parts of space and each day that number increased by in the millions.

"She is currently touring a newly manufactured O'Neil cylinder near the orbit of Saturn." The suited man saw a slight-flick of confusion. So the suited man continued "A majority of the population are members of the Order."

The elderly man nodded his head in understanding.

The rest of the meeting would continue like this. Questions asked, answers given. Discussions over emerging technologies. The selection of political leaders from a pool of election candidates. By the end of the meeting, the path was clear, contingency plans in the event talks between the Citadel broke down were created.

Regardless of whatever would happened, they knew humanity would endure.

* * *

**01/01/2158- Citadel[Docking Area]...**

"This is Falcon 1-1, we have touched down."

Raptor rechecked his HUD as the Warhawk's engines slowly powered down.

"Pilot, link the hull cams to my HUD. I want to know what we're dealing with." Raptor wanted to get an idea of the surroundings before exiting the shuttle.

A small window popped up on the right side of his HUD. External cameras on the outside giving him a live feed of the surrounding security task force. Ten heavily armed salarians and a dozen of the human-like asari stood guard. Between them, an asari in what appeared to be a full-body dress waited patiently, no doubt their "tour guide".

Raptor took a quick look around the shuttle's passenger hold. Everyone looked nervous, except for TARS cause it was impossible.

"Everyone ready?" asked Raptor.

Four green lights on the left side of his HUD meant they were all ready. _'Here goes nothing._'

The ramp doors opened. Raptor and TARS exited the ship first, then Guardian and Sandy next to ensure maximum protection of Ambassador Goyle. They all exited, weapons at rest but ready to defend the ambassador.

Ambassador Goyle stepped off the ramp last, the asari in the dress advanced forward.

"Greetings Ambassador Goyle." started the asari. "And welcome to the Citadel Council. I am diplomatic emissary Nassana Dantius. I will be escorting you to the Citadel Council." All of this was translated into english of course, but when Anita spoke it came out as turian.

Anita coolly replied with "Pleasure to meet you Nassana, you can just call me Anita." A quick smile reinforced her act of friendliness.

"Okay, now if you would like to, we can begin our travel to the Citadel Council Tower. Just please follow me." And after receiving the reply of a nod she began to walk out of the hanger, Anita Goyle sticking close behind her and her security team being even closer. Leading and trailing the little diplomatic envoy were two salarian Spectres dressed as C-Sec, their eyes ever watchful on the humans.

* * *

**01/01/2158- Citadel[Docking Area]...**

Two soldiers activated their advanced optical cloaks, becoming invisible to the naked eye. Exiting the shuttle they carefully crept behind a trailing Spectre.

"Sentinels, Operation Blackwidow is a go. Begin Intelligence Operations immediately."

* * *

**Codex:** Series Twelve Assault Drone (SAD-12). Produced by Kikuchi-Koga Arms, the Assault drone is a small, automated aerial drone designed to fill in the role of a fast response, heavy hitter in marine fireteams. Previous models employed large caliber machine guns, prechambered with two thousand rounds, the SAD-12 employs pulse weaponry. Before production began, the Alliance had asked for a change in weaponry, previous series used bullets, which while were effective in eliminating targets, the fact that they had to be chambered repeatedly during combat made the SAD-11 unpractical especially during long-term campaigns. In response, Kikuchi-Koga Arms introduced the pulse turret, rather then firing bullets, the pulse turret would fire a brief high-energy pulse. Capacitors would build up energy from a rather large battery power pack stored in the center of the drone, essentially providing a near infinite amount of ammunition.

Other key changes in the model include thicker armor, aerospike engines, perimeter scanning suite, and a full spectrum ocular sensor located on the top right corner. And of course a slightly bigger size to compensate for everything. All in all the SAD-12 remains to be one of the most recognized, and preferred, in the Alliance military today.


	8. Chapter 8: Behind the Curtains

**01/01/2158- Citadel [Nearing Citadel Tower]...**

Anita Goyle was getting tired of this extended tour. For the past two hours, she been forced to listen to Nassana's rants about the Citadel, how beautiful it was, population statistics, the history over how the Council races had discovered the Citadel through their travels, the majesty of the At this rate, Anita was sure she along with her escorts would die from listening to her spouts about how large and majestic the Citadel was. She knew what this was, it was a strategic move by the Council to remind them who had control of the situation, for all she care, they might have planned hours more of this.

"...as you can we have over two hundred different kinds of plant species imported from each Council Race." commented Nassana. Pink and white leaves flew through the air, unknown to the humans, it marked their proximity to the Citadel Tower.

"And now we are here. The Council Awaits for you _Lyassina_ " Nassana stopped before some large stairs, politely gesturing to walk up it.

Every few steps a hardened turian soldier with large, menacing weapons and incredibly thick armor stood guard. Each a veteran of war, each ready to brutally eliminate any threats posed to three of the most powerful figures in Citadel space.

Fireteam: Saber began their tactical analysis immediately. Guardian spoke first, surprised at the sight of their 'Welcoming Party' "Whoa. We have twenty juggernaut-class soldiers here, heavy weapons, full enclosed body armor; tagging them 'Alphas 1 through 20'."

Sandy casually appeared to be looking around, when she was in fact searching for more hostiles."We're surrounded. Detecting multiple snipers, top floor, and those are just the ones I can see. Tagging 'Bravos 1 through 3'. Twenty-three red outlines filled everyone's HUD.

TARS finished by inserting his own little analysis, "I see the deployment of optical cloaks on the balconies above us." Red outlines were highlighted randomly on unseen spots. Thank god for TARS.

Walking up the stairs, Anita's ear piece buzzed, "We are in the killzone." Anita decided that a more personal appearance was necessary, so she took off her helmet leaving only an ear piece for communication.

Despite their conditioning some of the turian guards felt a tang of intimidation, a predatory instinct, upon seeing a new and unknown factor suddenly enter the ecosystem. The glowing red-eyes on the ARMSOC helmets could only reinforce that image. But it would matter not, they weren't Council Guards for just any reason, if these humen warriors and their strange rectangle presented any threat to the council, they would be swiftly removed. So they continued standing, proud and strong, a reminder of the Council and Turian's might.

Step by step, the humans inched closer to the Council Chambers, the cherry blossom-like flowers gently floating through the air.

Finally taking that last step, Anita Goyle realized how large the room was. The pink trees they seemed to favor so much covered the entire Council floor, two white fountains beautifully decorated the wide open space. Across a long stage was a large podium; currently, an asari, a turian, and a salarian occupied it. They also happened to be above the stage, so anyone meaning to talk to the Council would have to look up at them._ 'What a bunch of assholes.' _was Anita's initial thoughts.

Behind them, the Widow nebula brightened and glowed, spitting out violet light, thick gas and dust. Majestic and beautiful. However, the peaceful image was disturbed by the long elongated wedge-shape of the SSV Jon Grissom.

Her earpiece spoke one last time. Raptor's concerned voice buzzed in her ear "You ready ma'am?"

Already Anita was thinking about how this could end, war, war, war, cold war, or even worse, calls for extermination. Of course that was just her being her pessimistic self, while she doubted they would walk out hand in hand, rainbows and sunshine everywhere, Ms. Goyle at least expected to get an official cessation of hostilities by the end of this. Possibly open up basic trading, whatever it took to get the Council off their off ass for a while until the Lords of Sol could figure out the extension of their military capabilities.

Reaching the end of the stage, with TARS standing next to her, Anita could hear the Councillors talking among themselves.

She did not have to wait long, as the asari began the introductions "It is a pleasure, hoomen ambassador, to meet you and your people. I am Councilor Tevos, representative of the Asari Republic. My associates here are Valern of the Salarian Union-". She gestured to Valern to clarify. "and Sparatus of the Turian hierarchy." Already Anita didn't like him, he gave her a hostile stare, almost as if he was trying to intimidate her. Add that to the fact that he was the turian leader, and he was 100% guaranteed to have a spot on her shit list.

The translator on Anita's neck, translated her following words into a synthetic female turian voice, "I am Ambassador Goyle, representative of the Systems Alliance." Her words were broadcasted through the small collar like device that she wore on her neck.

Pointing to TARS she continued "My counterpart here, TARS, represents our synthetic population." TARS himself rose one of his 'arms' in an attempt to wave, hopefully the Councilors would see the innocence in the gesture.

But all Anita could see were the frowns on their faces, the narrowing of their eyes. _Oh shit, don't tell me that TARS just told them to go fuck themselves or something._ However, her concerns were misplaced.

Tevos opened her mouth to speak but Valern beat her to the punch, "Synthetics? Curious. Speak about artificial intelligence or-"

Anita interjected "Artificial beings capable of reasoning, making their own decisions, learning, etc. Like us but instead of being organic, we consider them synthetic organisms, our non-biological counterpart. _Homo Artifcis_." From the way they were talking, her suspicions were slowly supporting her theory about their ideas over Synthetic Intelligences. The database they managed to recover abroad turian vessels had mentioned the existence of an synthethic collective named the Geth. Unfortunately, any details about them were unrecoverable along with the relations to alien civilizations across the galactic plane. From the way they were cautiously prodding about the existence of synthetics within Systems Alliance it seemed that relations with these 'Geth' were not positive or even worse... they had a previous conflict with one another.

"Ah." Exclaimed Tevos, her next words confirmed Anita's suspicions. "So you do mean Artificial Intelligence. A troubling revelation."

"A troubling revelation?" questioned Anita. "I'm presuming you have had issues with Artificial Intelligence in the past then." It was more a question then a statement, how the Citadel responded would determine how Anita could move forward. The Systems Alliance were already aware of the Geth, but it would be better to just play dumb. Keep their knowledge over things low.

Sparatus was the one to talk this time. "Indeed. That issue being the near extinction of a civilized race by the hands of synthetic creations. Our scientists predicted that that would be the outcome but they were ignored in favor of science. Unfortunately it resulted in the death of billions. Since then, we have seen the threat posed by Artificial Intelligences and have taken steps accordingly to protect our society from repeating such violent and destructive outcomes. Synthetic Intelligences have been illegal in Citadel Space for hundreds of cycles."

_Oh fuck._ Every human in the room, including TARS was surprised to hear about the laws imposed on Artificial Intelligence. Already a few moments in, and they were running into issues.

The best way to get out of this is to probably kiss their ass. "I apologize. We were not aware of the laws enacted." _Not that we cared anyway._

That was when Tevos gave out one of her award-winning practiced smiles. With all the suave that hundreds of years of politics could muster, Tevos smoothly replied. "Do not worry, you did not know better. However we ask that during an upcoming break that you please escort your fellow synthetic back to your shuttles, for security reasons." Anita saw what they were doing, eliminating their advantages to talks that they didn't have, having a machine that could possibly analyze, and formulate plans and ideas on a scale that an organic could not match with had a lot of benefits. And they were right to do so. They also couldn't have discussions with Synthetics, making it harder for Anita to make continue peace talks… at least as far as they knew. Officially, Anita was selected to handle both organic _and_ synthetic relations, TARS was just here to analyze and help Anita, pretending to be an ambassador was just an excuse to bring TARS into here so he could get an idea of how well protected the Councillors were, the layout to their structure, and begin dossiers on each and every species capabilities. So really she didn't lose anything in their attempts to undermine her but she sure as hell kept it into mind. She would need to carefully handle the rest of her conversation or otherwise face repercussions.

"We understand." Gritted Anita through her teeth. She was going to put one hell of a good show, right now it would be best to act like a amateur politician.

Tevos left that annoying smile plastered on her face until Valern disrupted the quiet. "Apologies for falling off topic. Good idea to get back to introductions, yes? What of your government?" Without awaiting a reply, the Councilors asked Anita to continue.

She reached into one of the pouches in her pants, retrieving a small portable hand sized hologram projector. With a soft squeeze, the white and blue emblem of the Systems Alliance was proudly projected. "The Alliance is, essentially the representative body of Earth and all her colonies. Born of out the necessity of preventing unrest in the frontier of uncharted space as well as protecting the numerous colonies across human space, the Systems Alliance was founded in our year 2147, as humanity's main military, exploratory and economical force. The Alliance is a supranational government, headed by the Parliament and Prime Minister." Seeing how they didn't interrupt her or made any changes in posture, she guessed that they the translator was working correctly, and successfully translating.

She made a mental note, she was going to personally thank the Alliance boys working at R&amp;D.

With another squeeze, she pulled up a hologram of Eden Prime and Earth. It was decided that for the sake of compartmentalization, and in the event talks broke down that other colonies and planets such as Mars would not be specifically mentioned or shown. "We have many planets under our banner-" Anita and Fireteam: Saber themselves knew that was complete bullshit, the Alliance had only colonized five planets and twelve moons were officially recognized by the Systems Alliance, and only three them had a population above ten million. "-our most populated colony worlds being Earth and Eden Prime. Earth is our homeworld, as well as the origin of the Systems Alliance's predecessor go."

Valern intelligent eyes continued scanning over the image of Earth. "Interesting. Many planets? Very interesting." _Damn he speaks fast._

It was expected that they would ask for more exact numbers, yet they surprised her by offering to talk about their own planets first. As the conversation switched over to a discussion about their own planets, TARS began analyzing the large amount of information he had been gathering since the moment the Warhawks touched the hanger floor in the Citadel docking bay. Squad tactics, weapon and armor configurations, power usage of the Kinetic Barriers, and of course the study of each and every strange alien species they saw.

However one thing took priority above all. The current movements of two Sentinel Operatives who had managed to infiltrate the Citadel... and the status of a certain entity who awaited abroad one of the Warhawks, who was waiting for the moment things would go really bad. It was not possible for TARS to feel fear, anxiety, or any of those human traits that would be counterproductive for a synthetic like TARS, but if there was one thing that TARS felt any intelligent being should fear, it would that one entity, the one individual silently taking residence abroad that Warhawk, if not exploring the Citadel already. _They never did listen well to orders._

"How did you come to learn of the Mass Relays?" asked the salarian councilor. Like the calm before a storm, TARS already knew where these talks were going... and it was going to be a long day, by synthetic terms.

**1/1/2158 - Escort Mission [Hong Kong]**

At this time of day, very few were awake, even fewer were active in the city streets. Not because of danger, crime had long since fallen down since the elimination of the triads in the 2030s. No, no one was in the street because most places were not open, not yet at least. It didn't matter anyway, especially when you were riding one of Singapore's high-speed monorails. It almost felt like a dream, whizzing from one Singapore neighborhood to the next, each just another blur as the train moved at incredible speeds.

Beneath the advanced monorail that spanned across the city, millions of refugees lived in slums, constantly under the threat of incessant flooding. Something that no one onboard the trains wanted to think of. On a seat within a monorail train sat an inconspicuous man, dressed in the grey and gold of a Coalescence Corporation manual worker, the kind that could be found in every part of the city. But what made him different from most others was the brown messenger bag strapped across his shoulder, for within lie information passed on from his superior from another person. Apparently whatever information was within the bag had been valuable enough to require the full employment of himself and every other "Runner" that worked for his employer. Funny thing was, he didn't even know if he was a decoy or not, no one knew what was in the bags, all they knew was that they had packages and different destinations to reach within the hour. His messenger bag would be dropped off at some whore house in the Kuaigan district.

Everything was going well so far until the train stopped at a station and four men in shades and black coats decided to come abroad. The runner didn't need to look twice to see their terribly concealed firearms, sonic guns by the look of the chrome finish. No doubt illegally printed off in some black market dealer's workshop. They probably had no manufacturing information or anything that would link back to the dealer. They didn't even look over to his direction before creeping towards him.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were here for, and unfortunately he had forgotten to bring his own gun; so he did what he did best, he _ran._ Launching the door open between that connected the current cart to the next, he sprinted. Even behind the doors, the runner could hear the footsteps of the men chasing him. Without losing any ground, the runner pushed to elderly ladies out of the way, causing them to drop their luggage.

At that point, the men in black took their weapons out, aware of their prey's attempts of running away. Futile, but it would be time consuming unless they stopped him there. Not even bothering to move around the ladies, one of the men fired, a wave of air fired out, impacting one of the elderly women and sending her flying into a nearby wall. A second shot fired and missed the runner by a few seconds, for the next door safely closed behind him, dispersing the focused air.

Some terrible misses and a few carts later, the train began to slow. Cameras onboard the train had identified the illegal usage and ownership of military grade non-lethal weapons, leading to the large gathered police force who now waited at the next station, ready to combat the criminals who had been terrorizing the monorail.

The runner was almost out of carts to move to, the next one would represent the dead end. He needed to find a way out of the situation and quickly. The train was slowing down, four men with sonic weapons were currently chasing him, and they had no problem shooting people out of their way. Taking the chance to see where they were, the runner realized that the monorail was moving slowly, marking the next stop at a station. No doubt the police were probably waiting, and if they caught him with an illegal package and a stolen Coalescent Corporation uniform he would likely be spending a few cold, hungry nights in one of Hong Kong's few temporary holding facilities. He could feel the train slowly down, looking out the window he guessed that the train's speed was somewhere around 40kph. Turning to one of the windows on the train, the runner decided on his next course of action.

By the time the four men in black launched open the cart's door, the runner had already gotten off the train. A shattered window and emergency hammer that lied on the floor marked his exit strategy.

* * *

When the maglev stopped at Youzhau district station, over thirty armed police officers stormed each cart. What they found was a massacre. Over thirty two counts of assault, twenty seven injured by the blasts of concussive weaponry, three were shaken and two were unconscious. But even worse were the homicide of five innocent people by blunt trauma. Two impacted a wall, one impacted a door headfirst, and two were strangely killed by what appeared to be fist-shaped lacerations. But those would not be the only causalities from that train.

When the doors opened for two unsuspecting officers, they walked into a strange scene. Glass shards covered the floor, and a small disc-shaped object sat near it inert. Unknown to them, the disc shaped object was itended to leave no traces behind during deniable operations.

Upon sensing the incoming thermal signatures of the two officers, the device armed itself. When one of the officers picked the device up, it triggered immediately.

From over two kilometers away, occupants of an active "American-styled" diner jumped out of shock as every windows within the restaurant explosively shattered. The waitress, an young local natonal in roller-skates fell as over as the concussive blast knocked her down. Plates slided off the tables, and the eggs that just came out of the kitchen landed on a young kid's face. An infuriated chef popped his head out behind the counter, looking for the origin of all this mess.

"What was that?" asked a frightened customer.

An ex-police officer who been in the Snow Leopard Commando Unit in his younger years recognized the signs. Standing up he provided the answer more for himself then the woman.

"That was a bomb."

* * *

The runner felt the concussive blast on his back as he ran through an almost empty street, knocking him down immediately. He had no clue what happened but whatever it was he needed to get as far away as it from possible, his leg was killing him after jumping out of the train. After a minute of rest, the runner got back up and began limping again.

After thirty minutes of travelling, he managed to enter the busy city corners that marked the outskirts of the Kuiagon district. Apartment complexes stood side by side, with no space shared between them, entire families sharing a single room. Outside on the actual dirty streets, poor men and woman begged for money just to get a meal for the next day. Hookers, male, woman and mechanically augmented wondered around, trying to find a customer. Men in long coats whispered to one another, pulling out whatever illegal package they were offering. Drugs, handguns, the likes, all of which were easy to get here. More so common if anything.

To cut time and deliver the package on time, the runner decided that going through the tight alleyways between each building was the best option.

Two mute beggars sat and stared at the disguised runner. Pushing away one who was trying to grab for him, the runner continued down the depths of the darkness. The lights from the street barely illuminated the alleyway. The runner glanced at his watch, ten minutes until dropoff. If there was nothing impeding his progress, he would be there in five minutes._ Five minutes ahead of schedule, a new personal record. _He couldn't wait until he got back to the "Hive" to receive his paycheck, it would be big, especially after going through all the shit of today.

But the runner would never receive that paycheck. Thirty feet to the end of the alleyway, four men in black jumped out of the shadows.

All it took was one burst, and the pressure wave sent the runner flying into a nearby wall. A shock from a stun gun, kept the runner incapacitated. He could feel his broken ribs, he could see the black boots of the enigmatic men in black walk around him,; but he could not move. One of them flipped him over hard into a small puddle of water, the runner yelled in pain, the pain of his ribs hurt worse then anything he ever felt in his life. Another one slid the messenger bag off him. He could hear them talking among themselves but he coudn't understand them.

_"Are we supposed to kill him?"_

_"Of course. Cut all loose ends, eliminate all witnesses." _

_"Want me to shoot him?"_

_"No. We need to get rid of the body. How many gel bombs do you have left?"_

_"Two."_

_"Good set one for low-yield. Make this look like a gang incident." _Whoever was giving the orders was standing right in front of him. The runner turned his eyes to the small puddle of water he was in. He looked into the reflection made by the little bit of light coming from the street and saw words inscribed on whatever stun gun they used. It was a little hard to make out but he could see five letters, they looked like they were in English.

The runner could hear a click and feel something placed in his hand. Then their footsteps as they walked towards where he came from, their steps sounded mechanical, strange. Looking into the reflection right before they left he could see the thing they put in his hand, some kind of disc-shaped object. The english letters were on it too, he could see some kind of stylized "A" at the end of it. Since it was a reflection he figured it was actually at the beginning of the word. But more importantly the runner could see a countdown of some sort.

_"5..4..3..2..1.."_

* * *

"Today is a sad for China... Chinese authorities condemned the terrible crime perpetrated by unknown terrorists who yesterday committed an act of terrorism and murdered over 200 people. Officials will neither confirm nor deny the possibility that gangs may have been involved... Chinese Special Police Units are currently deployed around the city along with Intelligence services to find the perpetrators. More about that will be coming soon. Now unto the gruesome death of ex-gang member, Tong Hung. Who was found in an alleyway, burnt alive. One of our reporters is on site..."

**01/01/2158- Citadel [Nearing C-SEC Headquarters]...**

One of the Citadel's finest, a turian in the black and blues of C-SEC issued armor, walked past unconcerned to the main entrance of C-SEC Headquaters. Like the many other aliens who walked in these halls, they were oblivious to the cloaked figures who lurked in the shadows. Within the small amount of time they had been on the Citadel, both invisible operatives had seen nine different kind of species happily conversing with each other. Families were seen playing the park earlier, one of the small bulbous aliens were trying to sell something to a turian, it was all human-like and that made it very weird. It was a very strange and new experience, something that no amount of training could have them prepared for.

"How far are we?"

"Two hundred meters. Stop."

Now, both Sentinels were looking for easily accessible terminals, databases over the military, anything that could give them intel, an advantage, over the aliens. But this entire station was locked down like a fortress, there were no wireless access points that they could sync their TACPADs, no means of gathering intelligence without manually accessing a physical access port. But that wasn't even the worst, twice they had almost stepped on one of the many pressure plates that the Citadel security seemed to favor. On top of that they had to watch out for whatever other counter-intrusion measures they had in place.

The footsteps of another person echoed through the hall, this time it was one of those blue women. But unlike the others, she wore blue and white armor with some kind of white insignia on her right shoulder. The door to their right opened and a turian walked out, immediately stiff at the sight of the asari.

"Spectre Vasir." The malice was clear as day in the turian's voice.

But asari was quick in her reply. "Detective Vakarian." Each species might have come from a planet thousands of light-years away from each other, but the body and literal language was universal, whoever these two were they didn't like each other. After an awkward stare off, of which was being monitored by the Sentinels, the turian broke it off and walked eyes straight ahead. Turning to a corner, the Turian left their sight.

The entire exchange was recorded by both operatives who had remained still as stone the entire time. When the doors opened though, the asari stopped and just ever so carefully tilted her head to the left as if she was aware of them. That brought all kinds of red flags, the Sentinels responded by slowly reaching for their pistols holstered to their legs and keeping their eyes on the remaining battery life. They each had a minute left if she attacked their cloaks would not doubt stop functioning.

With a sudden pivot of the heel, she abruptly walked in, the door sliding behind her.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that she had suspected something was up. So without any further attempts to enter the building, both operatives decided to call the mission. They would find public terminals and leave data sifters inside to send data.

Five doors later and they were back on track, the docks were four kilometers out and it was going to be a very long walk.

However, both Sentinel's concerns were misplaced, when Tela Vasir turned her dark blue head, it wasn't because of the Sentinels. No she was completely unaware of their existence, it was because she felt the air _change. M_ost biotics can sense each other when they were in approximate distance, no more then a few feet, but this, this felt different. It was that similar feeling to that static buildup but _overwhelming__, the air was thick with it, _like a bad smell that stuffed a room. It was strange, the closet thing she ever felt to it was when she teamed up with a krogan battlemaster a few decades back. His biotic charge was the most formidable she had ever seen in her life, a gory paste like mess was all that would be left when he charged someone. He could flare his biotics and she could feel it from the other side of the room.

She scanned the room, looking for any biotics, anyone who could have done it. But she felt no connections to anyone in the room, yet the feeling was still there. Maybe she had to get closer to the person.

* * *

On a small protrusion overlooking the entire space, a figure in matte black armor monitored patrolling turians, salarians on their glowing orange gauntlets, and an asari who was bumping into everyone. Each working together to keep the entire station safe. Yet despite all their counter-measures, all their efforts to prevent intruders from entering, none of them could have prepared them for what even the Sentinel's feared more then the aliens, the enigmatic, quiet shadow that was always somewhere, always watching.

Unseen by everyone, the figure glowed blue before suddenly disappearing.

While Tela Vasir could not see it, she sensed the departure, the return of the calm and peaceful air. And that worried her a lot.

**Recovered OSD [Hong Kong]- Operation: Event Horizon [****Unmapped Space]**

Everyone sat strapped in, safeties Toff, waiting for the red light at the edge of the hold to turn green. The signal that would start the mission. Through the small view of the cockpit's windows, Anderson could see the outlines of other shuttles slowly orbiting the wreckage of a ship, careful as to not get too close. Soon, this shuttle too would near the invisible boundary, the invisible line that separated minimal safety from possible danger.

Watching the ship's hull slowly rotate, large white words on the hull finally entered the pilots vision, spelling out the name of the ship, a name everyone knew, a name belonging to a ship that should not still be existing. The painted letters still looked new; as if it had not even gone on its maiden voyage. The shuttle creeped its way closer to line, it would be the last one to get this near until the end of the mission. For this shuttle had special cargo.

It was essentially full of men. Twelve various kinds of operators, the best of the best, strapped in with the most advanced exosuits and equipment humanity had in its possession. Which was virtually better then anything the Alliance could afford.

All twelve operators stood up after the light blinked from red to green. Depressurization soon followed, and before they knew it, the hold door opened and out launched twelve fully armored soldiers. Vacuum proof and ready for anything the ship might throw at them. Thruster packs on their backs kept them aligned with their target, the hull of the ship.

Now that he was out in the void he could finally get a good look at the ship. It was designed with a single purpose in mind, its mission. As a technology demonstrator, it featured an experimental design. While most Alliance ships used the universal long, angular, triangle design, the entire shape of the vessel featured a long rectangular body, with four blade like wings near its back, and a large section in front that looked like half a flying saucer. Its curved side point away from its main body. It was a unique design in every way, but it did not serve for simply aesthetic reasons, underneath the dazzle of the ship's shape, lie a utilitarian purpose.

He looked at the ship's name once again, that was when noticed his visor was getting harder to look through, fog was slowly filling it up, he didn't even notice he was breathing faster. But it wasn't everyday that a ship that supposedly disappeared suddenly reappeared again. Turning his eyes to the left side of the HUD, he called out for the entire squad's heart-rate measurements. The computer responded with a live-update showing escalated heart-rates in everyone, and increased adrenaline levels. Nobody knew what they were going to find in there, hell nobody even knew that this ship still existed until last week. The entire crew was briefed on potential scenarios ranging from the most possible to extremely ludicrous, that was why they had such a wide range of skill sets. Three of these operatives alone could do the job of an entire Kronos-ship maintenance crew. Two operatives had degrees in science that One operative even had a bible and holy water just in case the ship was haunted, hopefully though it wouldn't come down to paranormal activity.

As the ship's hull neared only dozens of feet away, each soldier turned on their magboots. As soon as they touched the hull, two operatives would begin scanning for any anomalies and information they were tasked with gathering, just to make sure that it was clear if not possible to enter the ship. With reverberating thumps, each soldier landed on top of a giant S, two of them pulling out their equipment from a pouch on their leg. They inserted long needles that drilled into the two foot thick armor plating, they reached into other pouches and pulled out their flexxies. Flexxies were simply flexible information pads, they could be rolled up, folded, run over by a truck, spilled on by water, tossed outside an airlock, thrown off a mountain and they would still work just as good. They were built to survive space or any but the most extreme of environmental conditions. Their durability made them loved by all Special Forces.

Without a single word, they packed up their tools and made a gesture to Anderson. Words entered his HUD, slowly typing out 'Slight radiation. Nothing deadly. Recommend we move forward.' Turning to face all eleven soldiers, he gave them the 'All clear' signal, a thumbs up.. Half of the team split up, activating their packs, flying to the side of the ship that was warped to gain entrance. They had already discussed the plan long before coming here, half of the team would float over to one side of the ship and enter from the damaged side of the ship, the other would work from the closet airlock near the bridge; each team slowly working their way through the ship until they met at the middle and determined whether the ship was clear for further investigation or not. If they found any survivors, they would provide temporary medical care if needed and await for medical evacuation.

When they finally got to the airlock near the bridge, thirty minutes had passed, for some reason none of the other airlocks would open, all reporting mechanical failures. If this one didn't work, they would have to cut through with torches. Typing access codes to his TACPAD, Anderson attempted to open the door. With an unheard whine made by the door, it slowly opened up, tools flying out. Six soldiers quickly jumped in, with another command from the TACPAD the door closed, and soon began the pressurization process. Anderson had a quick moment to observe his surroundings, the room seemed like it was going through maintenance repair before whatever incident happened.

As soon as the hissing ended, the doors into the ship opened wide revealing what was inside. Or lack there of, as the hallway was dark and empty, strangely not pitch black, but dark enough that you would not be able to see distinguish the difference between a shadow and a person. But there was no one in the long grey hall, in fact tossing threat grenades into the empty space, the Sentinels could not detect anything resembling a person within 50 meters.

"Sentinels. Status?" There was no reply. So Anderson repeated his order again. Waiting a few moments led to no change, he still received nothing back. Looking to the top right of his HUD he saw that there was no signal in the ship. _Strange._

A few operatives awaiting for orders turned their attention to him. Taking advantage of that, Anderson motioned to the Sentinels to manually turn on their speakers and auditory sensors, Anderson asked once again for the status, this time achieving results.

One by one, each Sentinel gave data relevant to their skill set.

"We have air pressure at 90 percent on this side of the ship. Scrubbers are up and running. ... almost like the crew didn't even breath at all their entire time here."

"Power is faintly active throughout the ship, backup generators must be running."

"The metal is blocking and jamming everything. Threat grenades have limited accuracy range of 5 meters, anything after that and its useless."

"Radiation levels are above normal, as long as we're not here for more then six hours we'll be within that safety limit."

"I can't get in contact with Red team." Each team was divided into two teams, the one Anderson was currently leading was Blue. The one Lt. Commander Mitchell was leading was Red team's. The fact that they couldn't get in touch with them troubled him for two reasons, 1) it meant something was blocking their rather advanced communications suite and 2) Secretly they had a bet, the challenge being who would be in the middle first, loser would have to pay the winner's expenses and costs for whatever trip of their choosing. Currently, Anderson liked the idea of visiting Alexandria, 'Heaven on Earth? Try Heaven in space.'

"Keep trying to contact them." He ordered the comms specialist. "In the meanwhile, unpack, Ali I want your drones mapping this place out now."

The indian man took off his exosuits thruster pack, opening a small pocket in the back and pulling out two small boxes that could fit in his hand. Sifting through his TACPAD he began setting the drones up for flight. Across from him, a similarly armored Sentinel Operative took his weapon off the thruster pack's magnetic holster storage, a folded G56C in his hands. Finishing whatever it was he was doing, Ali opened the lids to the boxes he had and tossed its contents into the air. The contents being over a hundred micro-flies, agile nearly invisible insect robots that were designed with reconnaissance in mind. They quickly flew out of the box and into different separate directions, scanning every room along the way.

* * *

On the other side of the ship, Red team's drone officer had already did the same. But they had already ran into some problems, each fly was designed to scam rooms, upon picking up something it couldn't identify it would stay there and attempt to observe until orederd otherwise. For 2nd Lieutenant Brendon Jessup, something was very strange. First came the ghost signals that they kept receiving, then everyone began to report feelings of unease, as if they were being watched._ A great way to start the mission._

Now the drones were alerting them to movement, two separate areas, survivors no doubt. So he called up Lt. Commander Mitchell and told him that the drones were picking up movement, so Commander Mitchell did what any other competent leader would have done, he asked him to show him. Following his order, Jessup took out a flexxie, folded it out, and pulled up the visuals for Drone 16, and what appeared on the screen brought worry to both of them.

It was an empty room, someone's quarters. There was nothing, no one inside. It was just as dark and quiet as any other room. Yet the drones were currently stating that someone was in that very room.

So he pulled up the image for Drone 78, it was in the maintenance bay, same thing. Nothing. Empty. Dark.

"Lieutenant? Do your drones require maintenance? Cause I'm clearly looking at what appears to be empty rooms." Laughed Ryan. "Unless there's a ghost or something hidden in there." Ryan continued laughing.

No one else did.

Jessup began switching back and forth between other layers in the spectrum, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, yet he could detect nothing.

"I don't know sir. Probably just a hardware iss-" His TACPAD beeped, Drones 4, 35, 56, and 76 were all reporting movement throughout the ship, as ordered, they stood by and watched. The Commander's smile faded away, now he was concerned. Two drones reporting issues? Coincidence. Six was a major problem.

"Send more drones to each area where the anomalies are taking place."

"Aye sir" was his reply. With a few taps of the TACPAD, Jessup sent two drones to each location. Surely they would tell him nothing was there.

He was wrong.

They each repeated the same results "**BIOSIGNS DETECTED**" followed shortly by "**TRACKING**".

Suddenly all drones started zooming out their rooms and into hallways, trying to follow the supposed biosigns that were supposedly moving. Six drones immediately cut out after a moment. But it was a different story for the remaining twelve, each one was following a ghost signature, something Jessup or everyone now looking over his shoulder now could not come to understand.

As each second passed, drone pairs unexpectedly lost their signal, seemingly losing contact upon meeting a wall, almost as if whatever ghost they were chasing disappeared into it. Jessep was getting nervous. Sweat was running down his forehead, he could hear everyone's gloves flex and grip their weapons harder. Beneath the gloves, a few of the Sentinel's knuckles turned white. Only one drone pair, consisting of drones 16, 18, 41 were still connected and tracking their quick moving enigmatic biosign. Superfast as in the drones were travelling through hallways at their maximum speed of twelve meters per second. That was when he noticed the path the drone pair was following, was leading directly to them.

Before Jessup could speak, Ryan cut him off and gave out the order "Sentinels, drones will be here in the next ten seconds. Cover the hallway."

All six Sentinels took cover in the hallways entrance, two crouched on both sides of the door, weapons aimed into the long hallway, two standing behind the crouched soldiers. The remaining two prone with exoshields active, blocking the door and providing more cover to the Sentinels who had their weapons aimed down the hall.

A buzzing could be heard through the hallway, along with thumps across the walls.

The atmosphere was thick with an electricity. A tense almost overwhelming tension, like a tightrope about to snap at any second. Primal fear filled Jessup, the result of intuition and instinctive responses from over a hundred thousand years of human existence passed on to each individual and their kin, a continuous never-ending journey. All that Jessup knew was that whatever was coming, was nothing like they had even seen before.

"Now." Buzzed the Commander's voice.

The hallway darkened and tinted blue hue appeared. The metal walls screeched. Finally the fly-sized drones flew right over their head and crashed into the wall behind them. Whatever the drones were chasing, disappeared into the wall.

All six soldiers were sent floating into the air. For some reason their magboots and thruster packs just stopped working.

"I wish we had Estaban and his holy water." commented one of the floating operatives.

* * *

Meanwhile on the other side of the ship Blue team faced similar issues. Everyone had the feeling of being actively watched, the fact that every room was dark didn't help either. The kicker came though, when their drone specialist started to report that the drones were picking up biosigns in the lower levels of the ship. Despite the fact that ship was only five-hundred meters across, it happened to have almost the same tonnage as a frigate. Meaning more space to cover, but less places to actually have to go through. Larger rooms vs tighter areas, this was a privately built vessel after all. For Blue team things were not as better, in this case, three drones were picking up ghost signals, ghost movements in the maintenance bay, the ship's main cafeteria and the bridge. Unfortunately, Ali could not pull up the visuals for some odd reason.

Alerting Captain Anderson to this, he quickly ordered divided blue team to three separate units, two soldiers for each location. Captain Anderson would head over to the bridge along with the team's Close Quarters Combat specialist, a scarred Australian operative. Ali would go with the team's Designated Marksmen, Paul. And finally both remaining Sentinels were to go down to the maintenance bay. Due to un foreseen problems with the team's communications devices, each unit would have to meet at this exact location in thirty minutes. With that decided they all headed to their targets, each of them having the feeling in the back of their neck of being watched.

A few minutes passed.

As the elevator door closed, two warriors in exosuits walked in, weapons out checking all corners of the room.

"Clear here." Said the Australian

"Clear." Repeated Captain Anderson, walking towards a nearby terminal.

The Australian couldn't keep quiet any longer, "So what the bloody hell is going on sir?"

David knew what he meant, he just didn't know how to answer him. After a pregnant silence that lasted a few seconds, the Australian continued "Do you know why the ship is like this?"

Looking around the bridge was all but empty, lights barely keeping the dark from consuming the entire bridge. There was nothing here, no bodies, just like the rest of the ship. Ever since their entrance into the ship, the Sentinels had failed to find a simple example of the crew's remains. It was almost as if they simply got up and disappeared or were never here at all.

He replied truthfully, "I don't know Zaeed, I know just as much as you do. Check the terminals to see if any work." Anderson turned back to a keyboard he was in front, and tried to activate one of the inert terminals, expectantly, only to receive a black screen. Like everything else on this blasted ship, nothing seemed to work.

Turning to check back on Sentinel Operative, he noticed him looking towards the entrance of a door. Turning his head to David he put one finger to where his mouth would be on his helmet, and motioned for him to listen. Changing his audio sensors to a higher setting, Anderson could hear an elevator moving up. That wasn't part of the plan with the Sentinels.

Someone was coming up.

Zaeed quickly flipped a table to its side, punching away compads and tools that floated through the tense air.

Anderson took cover behind a holotable in the center of the bridge, softly pushing a floating chair that would have otherwise been in his line-of-sight.

They leaned over their makeshift cover, waiting as the elevator slowly slid up before stopping on this floor.

With a ching, the doors opened and out came… nothing.

Anderson frowned, What the hell is going on?

Zaeed's voice cracked into the air, "Wrong floor huh."

Yet Zaeed seemed to change the location of where he was pointing his shotgun, from the elevator to the ceiling right above him. Looking up, Anderson noticed the entire ceiling was strangely turning blue, he could also hear thumps as if someone was climbing on the wall. Instinctively his gun rose to the ceiling too.."

Listening more intently, Anderson could hear not one but two noises, one coming from above Zaeed… another one nearing Anderson. The thumps ended when they came from right above him.

It was nerve-wracking.

He really did not know what to expect next. No one did. Historians would later look back unto this moment, humanity's first contact with beings that they did not, and would not ever truly understand. They would look back at the actions of the recovery team first sent into the ship, and determine the effectiveness of their actions. The choices made by the Sentinel Operatives abroad the SSV Singapore.

Reviewing his possibilities, Captain Anderson choose what he felt to be the best course of action, the most logical choice, one that would have long-lasting consequences. Wasting zero time, he set his helmet's speakers to max volume and did what no one else would have thought of doing, he called_ them out_.

And they responded.

* * *

**Codex/Technology/SSV Singapore**

Created in the orbital shipyards over Mars, the SSV Singapore was a technological testbed for new and experimental discovieres. Unknown to the general public of that time, the Systems Alliance had discovered ruins on the remains of an alien planet in the frontier of space. Uncovered data from the ruins had led to the creation of a new form of Faster-Than-Light travel in the form of The Void Core. The exact mechanics and engineering to achieve it died along with most of the scientists killed abroad the SSV Singapore. Unlike the Alcubierre Drives employed by all Systems Alliance Vessels, the Void Core achieved Faster-Than-Light travel by theoretically creating a subspace bubble that exists outside the normal fabric of space-time. the SSV Singapore was also the first ship to use such an experimental form of Faster Than Light drive. Unlike the Alcubierre drives currently employed by the Systems Alliance, the void core used a different method of transporting a vessel, rather then contracting and expanding space, the void core creates a space time bubble around the surrounding area propelling a vessel light years away almost instantly. It disappeared forever in its maiden voyage... until its rediscovery in 2155 by a group of Tier 1 Special Forces. Unfortunately, today the status of the vessel is unknown, presumably missing after the reactivation of its core drives following a search and rescue mission. Now they are many legends and myths over the possible situation the SSV Singapore may be involved in.


	9. Chapter 9: Ghosts

**01/01/2158- Citadel [C-SEC Headquarters]... **

Tela Vasir hated the Citadel.

For the past thirty minutes, she had been tracking the source of the biotic flares at C-SEC HQ, but once she actually got into it, the trail had gone cold. So after some careful consideration she had to resort to other methods.

Like contacting another Spectre.

Tela Vasir trusted very few people, but in this case, no one else was better at tracking Biotic criminals then the very first female Salarian Spectre. Unfortunately her efforts to locate the Ghost had led them to the very maintenance tunnels they were currently crawling to. And she could barely fit in this fucking space.

Why they had to make them so small only frustrated her, but for Telek Bau, she seemed to be enjoying the complications that came with the mission.

Crawling behind the retired STG operative, Tela Vasir had to ask "How do you know it went through this direction?" The crawling space seemed to get smaller as she continued, threatening to press closer until Tela could barely get her hips through.

"I don't. Feels right. Consider it an act of faith, not logical but instinctive."

Tela's crawling came to a halt, her face scowling "What?!"

Telek's reply was brief and to the point. The traits of a good salarian. "Fought numerous Biotics, Krogan Battlemasters, Rogue Asari Commandos, even Elcor Vanguard. Know what I am doing."

Tela Vasir couldn't really argue with that, especially once she mentioned the Elcor Vanguard. Elcor Vanguards are very few and far, less then ten existed according to the STG's predictions. And they weren't anything to scoff at, Tela had seen footage of an Elcor Vanguard against a bunch of mercenaries _and_ their vehicles. An Elcor's biotics charge had been shown to outright destroy vehicles, and turn everyone within a five meter radius into paste. No one survived the battle and in less then ten pieces. Compared to that, her own biotic charge could only kill if not heavily injure most Council species. And the fact that Telek Bau had fought _and _survived a battle with an Elcor Vanguard, was outright insane if not unbelievable.

"So how far are we from it then?" Following a curve in the tunnels, they continued onward before Telek suddenly stopped. Tela herself stopped moving, unsure of what to do. Suddenly she felt the air change again, her nodes flaring, just like at C-SEC HQ.

"Ask the keeper in front of us."

Looking past Telek' shoulder, Tela saw a keeper in a large room (Thank the goddess)... hands in the air and antenna moving. It wasn't doing what all Keepers were known for usually doing, working on some terminal doing goddess knows what or fixing something. It was literally moving its hands in an organic like way, gesturing while looking at the air.

Almost as if it was...

Communicating with someone there.

Tela was not prepared for the overwhelming buildup of static that hit her like a sip of Ryncol.

Recovering quickly, Tela excitedly began whispering "This is it, this is where the perpetrator is."

Tela pushed Telek forward, resulting in Telek falling out of the tunnel and crashing into the room, both of her omni-tools up and at the ready. Tela dropped to the floor and flared her biotics. The Keeper continued its "conversation"with the air", either unaware or not caring about the Spectre's presence. And that annoyed Tela.

And you never wanted to annoy a Spectre much less Tela Vasir.

Telek's feminine voice called out, "Contact! Right in front of the Keeper!" Tela didn't know how Telek knew, but without waiting for another word she prepared to charge.

Disappearing in a flash of blue, Tela appeared a split second later, at the spot she thought the figure would be at.

With a yell she discharged all her stored biotic energy in an attempt to disable whatever cloaking the figure was using, but before she could do so the Keeper near her was pushed back out of the distance of her biotic blast. Tela got the expected result for the figure's cloak shimmered, an overload from Telek quickly followed and with a loud ping, the figure's optical cloak shut off.

Tela's eyes opened in surprise.

What stood in front of Tela could be best described as a fully armored asarinoid, the kind of robotic servants the Asari used before the Geth rebelled against the suit-rats. But unlike the peaceful droids of that time, this one looked as if it was made for only combat. Overlapping black matte metal plates over some kind of flexible undersuit. A blank black facemask, smooth and featureless except for a lined black visor that covered the area where the eyes would be, protected its head. The only key feature it was missing was the fringe.

Finally to complete the whole set, was the sight of a sword's handle. Located right behind the figure's back.

Yet there was something she noticed, or rather the lack of. Minus the archaic melee weapon, the figure had no other visible weapons. What exactly it thought it could do with a sword Tela questioned, but you never brought a sword to a gunfight.

While Tela's eyes was analyzing her mysterious opponent, her hands were reaching for the shotgun on her back. Before she could even aim it at the figure though, it launched its sword at her weapon, surprisingly nailing it to the wall behind her.

From behind Telek sent a cryo-freeze at the figure.

Only for it to hit the wall.

By the time Telek realized what had happened the figure had already crossed the distance between them, ignoring Tela completely. Less then foot away Telek watched as a blue glowing fist flew straight towards her.

'_Oh no..._' Telek who was startled, could only watch as the armored fist impacted with her kinetic barrier, sending her flying.

Her mind began to work at a million miles a second shortly after she realized she was soaring backwards through the air. Her helmet was blaring that her shield was down, and that her armor has sustained some superficial damage. That was alarming, her shields were rated for going against a vanguard's charge; her armor was designed to take a direct hit from a krogan. Her hardsuit was made up of the very best things, credits could buy and yet it suffered extensive damage from a single hit.

_Overload didn't affect as much as should have. Neural Shock should fry nerves if organic. _

And somehow this Asarinoid had cracked through her shields and done damage to her armor with only a single punch. If that was the limit of the hostile's abilities, then already it would be rated as a high-tier biotic; dangerous but manageable. However, if that wasn't the case, then this biotic constituted an overwhelming threat to even elite Biotic Hunters like herself.

_Require more hunters._

She watched as the figure moved with insane speed and precision, stopping right behind Tela. Who had barely turned to face her opponent. Her punches were quick, but the black figure seemed to effortlessly block them. The figure returned with a single jab to her chest, causing a large dent in her body armor. A sweep of its foot knocking her over, and a swift kick to her stomach, insured she wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

_Travels very fast for organic. Definitely biotic. Batarian black ops in power assisted armor? No. Aesthetic style doesn't match._

A crunch marked Telek's impact with the wall; a heavy thud, Tela crashing to the floor.

Blackness welcomed both them in its sweet embrace once again.

When Telek awoke her wrist launched up, an incendiary on one omni-tool, and a Neural Shock on the other. Unfortunately it was too late; the asarinoid, its sword, and even Tela's favorite shotgun had all disappeared. Nor was there a single trace of the keeper.

_Left no traces. Synthetic? Disappeared like apparition, appears the Citadel has its own spirit_... "Phantom".__

In the background Telek could hear Tela awake. Probably looking around she came to a similar conclusion, angrily yelling.

"Athame damn it! The goddess damned creature took my shotgun!"

_Didn't kill us only... incapacitated threat. Not programmed to kill us? Geth stealth unit? Maybe left alive to spread fear? But not fearful. Hmmmm... _

Despite getting knocked out, Telek remained intrigued. She hadn't been this interested in a single biotic since chasing down that Salarian for the STG.

She could still hear Tela yelling, cursing the goddess. "And where's my pistol?!"

* * *

**01/01/2158- Citadel [C-SEC Headquarters]**

"...all turian soldiers and military materials will be returned to the Turian Hierarchy."

Anita Goyle was more then happy to provide a quick comeback. "Absolutely. But now that we're on that matter, I feel now would be the appropriate time to discuss reparations." Every since TARS was kicked out everything had gone down to shit. For the past thirty minutes they, as in the Council, had provided introductions and basic information over each other's respective species and then to how the Citadel Council was formed. The Asari found the Citadel, then the Salarians, other species slowly found their way here too, then some galactic war happened, and finally the turians came along and saved everyone; or so they say.

Then conversation had switched over to the real reason of the talks, the Shanxi conflict and the results of the fight.

"Reparations?" growled Sparatus. "What reparations would a species who has no problem breaking galactic law or killing law enforcers ask for?"

Anita sighed, "A law that we never even knew existed!" She could barely contain her anger.

The Salarian and the Asari Councillor seemed a lot more willing to listen. "What kind of reparations are you asking for?" asked the Salarian Councilor.

"We want resources, enough to rebuild Shanxi twice over."

"Resources?" repeated Tevos. She had honestly expected Diplomat Goyle to ask for weapons, defense systems, ship blueprints, something military related. Something that would give them an edge, if not jumpstart their capabilities of reverse-engineering Mass Effect Technology. But resources that caught Tevos off guard, what would they need...

'_Ah.'_ Th answer was right outside her window. '_Of course._' Tevos smiled as a plan formulated in her mind. In the background she could Valern and Sparatus try to barter with Diplomat Goyle.

Tired of their bickering Tevos made an announcement "We accept." Everyone went silent at the declaration.

"Surely you must be-" started Sparatus, but Tevos interrupted him before he could speak further. "One and quarter times the amount of resources used to build your colony seems like a fair deal however."

Anita's eyes shrinked. "One and three-quarters. Any less would be-"

"One and a half. Enough resources to build your colony, with half more used for whatever purpose your government may see fit. After all with the loss of the Turian patrol, those resources would be better needed for rebuilding our patrol ships who were protecting that area of space from pirate attacks. But now that you want the resources..." Tevos shrugged before giving Councilor Sparatus a certain look. "Anyway, it would also a good step forward to pursuing a more friendly relationship with the humans." Sparatus headplates shifted, he saw that Tevos was getting somewhere, but he didnt know where. So he decided that for now he would just play on.

"Ah yes." his voice flanging. "For accidentally causing such grief, on be half of the turian hierarchy, we will compensate for the losses on the colony Shanxi... and only Shanxi. Since we'll be nearby for the release of our soldiers, it would seem appropriate if we delivered the materials while receiving our soldiers and vessels."

"Thank you Councilors." she said.

Tevos turned to both of the Councillors before moving on. "Now that we have that out of the way." Tevos gave Anita another smile. "There is something we would like to discuss, since the the induction of the Volus, it has been protocol for a new species to be inducted into the Galactic Community upon discovery. If they choose so of course."

Anita opened her mouth, flabbergasted. _They attack us then expect us to join them? What the fuck?! _Regathering her thoughts, the words that came out of her mouth were different, "And for joining the Citadel Council, what exactly must we do in return?" Hopefully they would mention something about military secrets or economics. She needed some way to make this induction seem as unattractive and unwanted as possible to the High Lords of Sol. The more hostile the aliens seemed, the better. After all, her friends didn't get her in here for just any reason.

"Your species wouldn't be part of the Citadel Council for that consists of the three of us and any future species who prove themselves. You would become an associate race, but I digress your species would have to register every and all military vessel, we will also investigate your ships to make sure they follow the "multiple-species accords" of stardate 1920 and are updated to allow the bare minimal standards of any known Citadel species. Technologies must also be shared for the betterment of Galatic Society, and by that we mean military blueprints, your studies over artificial intelligence, and so on. In exchange we will do the same for you. You will also have to follow other laws, the Treaty of Faxiren for example, which states that as an associate race you can only have a fifth of the turian's total dreadnought numbers. Or the immigration laws that allow our species to come to your planets, and yours to ours.

Inside Anita was shaking her head, but to maintain that appearance of politician willing to be a team player, Anita had to be different outside. So she asked "What is a dreadnought and how many 'dreadnoughts' would that be?"

Sparatus pointed to the window behind him, which showed the SSV Jon Grissom calmly floating in space "Five. Which seems fair, because why would you need more?"

Anita ignored the question. That_ wasn't so bad. We're only just started building our fifth dreadnought._

Not willing and not caring to wait for permission, Tevos continued. "Contrary to what you may have been led to believe Ambassador. Artificial Intelligence do exist in Citadel Space, however they are all carefully monitored by the Council, with only three corporations being licensed to develop them for research purposes. Then of course there are kinds of economical laws but that can be discussed at a later time."

Anita smiled mentally._ Economics. Oh yes, how did I forget about that. I have all I need._

"Finally to ensure all species follow these laws and to keep the peace, the Spectres will act as our hand."

"Spectres?" asked Anita. She didn't like the sound of that.

"Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Agents. Those whose jobs are to protect Galactic Stability when threatened, at any means necessary. They can have access to anything they need, as long as its related to their assigned mission. Any species can have their own Spectre if they prove themselves."

_Beautiful. I have what I need._

"I thank you very much for everything Councillors." Anita saw Tevos flash another one of her practiced, fake smiles. "Unfortunately I am in capable of making a decision for all of us without our synthetic ambassador. Who may I remind you, you kicked out of these chambers." Anita watched as the asari's smile began to crack, slowly turning into an emotionless expression that Anita couldn't necessarily read. "Nevertheless, allow me to clarify what you were trying to say. So if we become part of the Citadel we will not only have to limit our military capabilities but share all of them as well? Recall all of our ships so they can fit other aliens in them, which is an extremely costly process? But above all, allow some kind of Special Investigation agents to access or kill anyone and anything to complete their mission." Anita scoffed "This is subjugation, you know full well you are attempting to undermine us, and so I, no we, as a society respectfully decline this invitation to become part of the Citadel Council." And with that Anita put her hands together behind her back, calm and confident with her decision.

Unaware of the consequences that would come later and the fire she had just started.

**10 minutes Break- Citadel Tower [Councilor personal chambers]**

Sparatus pulled out a bottle of unopened turian brandy and poured himself a glass, surprised when Tevos sat across, motioning for him to hand her a drink.

After passing her a glass, Tevos spoke "Really good-acting Sparatus, you almost had me convinced."

"You know I've been saving myself this for a while, for this kind of shit. Some young weak species telling us to go screw ourselves. I find it entertaining actually, still think we should have sent a suppression fleet to handle these fake-asari rather then play the wait game."

Valern took a seat on the other side of the room, activating his omni-tool for something."I dont think so, if anything humanity denying our invitation works in our favor."

"How so?" Sparatus was eager to hear Valern. Tevos who took stood on the other side of counter with a drink in hand was curious to.

Tevos answered because she already knew the answer "Analysts already predict that the image Humanity have given themselves will be negative in public's eyes. Plus the batarians also live in the Attican Traverse and pushing their expansion into the Skyllian Verge..."

"We no longer have to patrol the Attican Traverse, for they'll settle the unstable regions" finished Sparatus. "...and with two powers competing for the same territory war is inevitable."

The two Councillors managed to catch Valern smiling at that final statement.. With two growing powers competing for the same stretch of space, a conflict would be inevitable. And while the Batarians were no doubt a larger force, Humanity seemed to have quite a bit of interesting technology, their two-kilometer behemoth of a ship for example, was a remarkable feat of engineering. Anyway, with humanity not part of the Citadel, that meant the Council would not have to worry about the whole growing power conflict between Humanity and the Batarians. Meaning they would either fight each off until one was destroyed in which the Citadel Council could intervene and force them to desist and submit, under either "Batarians are an associate race or Humans are a young and underdeveloped species" and then the Council would seemingly save the day.

Or they would fight to the point where both exhausted their resources and then the Council would step in and force both to become Client races, both being too weak to fight back against the Council. Regardless, humanity would be forced one way or another into the Galactic community and with the way the way things were planned to unfold, the public would no doubt support the Council.

And with a sip of his drink, Sparatus began forming plans for the next part of the talks.

**01/01/2158- Unidentified Excavation Team[Eden Prime]**

The cave exploded in a shower of rocks as new entry way was formed above. Streaks of artificial light piercing through the veil of darkness from a large spotlight above.

Two small metallic hand-held objects dropped unto the floor. Most organics visual senses would not have picked up the change in the room as infrared radiation spilled across the rocky floor, providing an outline of the cave that was invisible to most.

Twelve long strands of hardrope quickly following through. From the fresh opening fifty feet above, twelve men and woman in black plated, heavily modified, mechanized environmental suits slid down. Minus the distinctive coloring of black marking each soldier as that of highly-trained special forces unit their were no other features that provided an identity as to who they were.

Upon landing in a loud rumble that kicked up dust everywhere, each operative aimed their wrist mounted Gatling guns into the inky blackness of the cave, clearing the area for any hostiles. Even though it was widely known that no one had ever mapped these caves, if at all this area, caution took precedence over convenience. Not that anyone could really hurt them in these suits.

"Check left."

"Check right."

"Area clear. Bring down the Artifact."

From the newly formed mouth of the cave, two blurs appeared, optical cloaks distorting their humanoid figures. Above them a hover sled carrying a green-glowing, spike-looking object descended until it "landed", floating just a foot above the ground. Two of the armored operatives neared the sled, stopping as two optical cloaks dissipated and in their place stood two distinctively armored figures.

An operatives voice cracked through her helmet's speakers, "Sirs? Orders?"

Both figures unnervingly remained stoic and unanswering as the two operatives awaited their next orders. After an awkward silence that lasted a good-thirty seconds, one of the figures pointed to one of the random tunnels that seemed to surrounded the cavern.

The female operative turned back towards the other Operatives. "You heard 'em. Get the sled moving towards that tunnel. Seraph, Outrider, stay here and keep the place clear. Tell the freighter above us to power down and to send a message if anyone comes within a hundred clicks of here." This entry point would also serve as their extraction point. Just in the event things got hot and needed a quick getaway, two operatives would stay behind and guard this location.

Her order was met with two affirmatives.

"Everyone else on-" Turning back to where the two figures were, the female Operative found nothing in their place. They had seemingly disappeared into thin air, almost as if never there to start with.

"-me." _'They always do this shit.'_ she thought before walking deeper and deeper into cave...

...and leaving the safety of the light.

The hoversled moved forward. Eight operatives, in their specially designed armored environmental suits, protected the artifact by surrounding all four sides, boxing up around it. Two others operatives wondered a hundred meters ahead of the main group, mapping out the front and occasionally dropping an infrared beacon to help guide the whole team and the sled. Even though the operatives could have done fine without the beacons, the sled couldn't, changes in the ground's surface when combined with heavy weight provided by the Artifacts extreme density made mapping of the environment an absolute necessity. With each infrared grenade dropped, a computer within the sled ran calculations and adjusted the height accordingly, so as to not crash into the floor or unto the roof.

And as they traveled deeper and deeper into the black-walled caverns, the cave began to unnaturally smooth out. But that was not the only change, the atmosphere began to drip with fear; strange noises could be heard around them and the artifact was giving off a bright eerie glow.

But twenty minutes in, each operative began chattering among themselves as to feel better. Despite orders to not break silence unless ordered to, their commanding officer, the female operative who had received her orders directly from the two figures, could not blame them for doing so. If anything she wanted to join a conversation, but maintaining her leadership image was more important, so she settled in listening to what they were talking about.

She overheard a younger operative speaking, "So what do you think we're gonna find down here?" Now that was a good question, one that even she didn't know the answer to. And one that be better worth it, this entire operation had been put together last minute. One call in the middle of the night from her father, and she had to leave her boyfriend's apartment and was now travelling through the depths of some unexplored cave with a bunch of silent ninjas and in what was apparently the pinnacle of human technology in the field of hazardous protection. In other words, a possibly dangerous mission to territory unknown requiring an illegally modified combat version of the most advanced environmental powered-assisted armor ever created... while escorting an illegally owned alien artifact that if caught, would result in the punishment of spending life in an Alliance torture cell. And probably the death of everyone related to that person.

"I don't know man. Whatever it is though, I've got a bad feeling about this." That made her nervous, if everyone wasn't green then there would be a problem.

With a quick vocal command the female operative opened up comms to the entire team, "Nachtigalls, set your motion sensors to maximum range. If you see anything suspicious or feel any pull to the artifact you report it immediately." Her father had reported that anyone near the artifact who wasn't in full hazardous environment gear would feel a strange pull to the black artifact, a need to touch it which would result in your death. Unfortunately the very first scientists who had made this archaeological find had not been aware of that, and subsequently died from violent seizures.

Apparently touching 50,000 year old, alien artifacts was not good for your health. Who knew?

"What abut _them?_ Where do you think they are?" She knew who they were talking about. Ever since their introduction to the two figures only an hour ago, everyone had been unnerved by their presence. After all, how can you relate to a being that never speaks or even shows its face? Add that to their miraculous cloaking capability and everyone had a good reason to be cautious of them.

But she knew better. Her father had given her the rundown over them, so unlike the rest of the team she had a little info about them. A distress signal was picked a few years back, originating from some experimental vessel that had thought to have been lost with all hands long ago. It was testing a new way of travelling through the stars, one originally deemed to be impossible. Obviously it wasn't because the ship was found floating five light years away from human space. So when some miner's ship found it, an Elite team of Alliance Black Ops Operatives were sent to recover any data or retrieve samples if possible. Turns out they would never get any answers, for the FTL Drive, "The Void Core" was gone and there were no bodies abroad the ship to be found. It was like all five hundred of the crew had just suddenly disappeared in the middle of their work.

But that was without saying something was left behind; from within the ship, a twisted few, fifteen in all, somehow survived the void.

For the void had changed them. Anointed them. They became much more then human, turned them into something beyond the understanding of mortal men. A force so unpredictable and unreal, that it could only be described as supernatural.

No wonder the Sentinels called them "Ghosts."

The female operative did not notice until now that everyone had stopped moving. Looking around one of the operatives, she realized she was looking at a dead end down the cave. Or at least what looked like a dead end, the two operatives she had sent to scout ahead were standing in front of the wall. It wasn't until she got closer that she realized the "cavewall" was actually not of the same color as the rocks, if anything it looked as dark as the artifact.

One of the scouts turned to her. "Ma'am I think we found what we were looking for." As if to make a point he gestured to the wall.

"Can you tell me what it is?"

The scout on the left turned around. "Its a wall ma'am."

_Well no shit._ She was starting to get upset. She had no more orders, no data over what they were looking at or what to do. "Okay. Fine. Does anyone know where the two-"

As if on que, the two Ghosts appeared out of thin air. Their cloaks dissipating as they stepped closer to wall for examination. Everyone watched as one of the Ghosts reached out towards the black wall, curiously feeling its strange, smooth surface. After a moment, it pulled its hand back and turned to face the twelve awaiting operatives. Without uttering a single sound, the two "Ghosts" began pushing the two scouts and the team's leader away from the wall. Finally stopping after they were fifty feet away.

The minimum safe distance for what they were about to do.

Without warning the two Ghosts disappeared in a flash of blue, appearing in front of the black wall. Surprising everyone as they had just seemingly teleported.

Everyone was startled as the Ghosts bodies began to glow blue. With each passing second they began to store more and more dark energy, until reaching the apex of their power. And with a throw of their arms the stored energy was released as a blue explosion on the black wall.

The surrounding rock area was disintegrated almost instantly, revealing more of the black, metal wall.

Rapidly shifting mass effect fields began to shred the black wall at the molecular level. However, to the casual observer, the warp did not affect the molecular enhanced walls, leaving the entire team disappointed as there was no discernible change on the wall.

But as time passed and more energy was channeled to the wall, the excavation team began to notice changes in the wall. A few small dents were finally appearing, an occasional dent showing the effect the Ghost's powers had on the wall.

It would go on like this for a while, each Ghost would take turns warping a single spot on the metal, trying to weaken it so they could get throw it. It wasn't until one of the Ghost's dropped to their knees that she realized the toll the wall was taking on them. When she rushed to help the silent figure, the unthinkable happened. The wall _exploded, _showering the female operative with tiny black shards and kicking millennium old dust up in every direction.

Trying to get up and failing, the operative noticed that her HUD was registering severe damage to the helmet as well as the fact that the armor was in lockdown. Apparently, the automated computer systems that helped run the suit had picked up a critical threat to the driver's health. In response the mechanized suit had locked the joints in place, to prevent injury to the wearer. Ironically, the distinct black helmet of the Ghost she was trying to help appeared in front of her head, it was now trying to help her.

"Suit's in lockdown." The Ghost tilted its head. "No worries, it should release in a moment or two." Looking up to the Ghost's helmet she noticed that there was a large black shard poking through the neck part of the undersuit that the Ghost was 'wearing'. "Hey." she called, "Ummmm... you have a-" The Operative felt relieved as the suit's lockdown mode finished, giving her body control of the suit again. "-I got it,"

She got up, reaching for the black shard that was _in_ the Ghost's neck. Allowing her to do so, she went for the shard and pulled it without any effort. She was half-expecting to see blood coming out of it the wound or something but she was startled as the undersuit _healed_ itself. "Oh my god, is that nanotech?" But the Ghost seemed to be focused on something else as it ignored her question and tapped on the small slit of her helmet that was the visor.

"What?" she asked. That was when she remembered the warning her helmet gave her. As if seeking to warn her, the Ghost gestured for her to take her helmet off by pretending to take off its own helmet. "Oh you want me to- But I can't the air." She looked around, the dust still filled the air. If she took off her helmet she would definitely breath it in and it would probably come with a whole list of health issues later on.

In response the Ghost arms extended outward and with another full-body glow, dark energy was released in the form of a large blue field that covered the space they were in.

The dust was being kept out of the field. With a turn of her helmet, the operative took it off. The air seal disengaged, oxygen hissing as it was released in the small force field.

Her long, red hair fell down in a single swift move. We're it not for the fact that she was in a serious situation, she would have definitely applauded herself for doing what every girl wanted to be able to do. Turning the helmet in her hands, her eyes widened in surprise.

_Holy shit! _There was a large black shard sticking right out of her helmet, stopped only by the durability and thickness of the helmet's composition. _Holy fucking shit!_ Had it been any other kind of helmet, any different pick of gear, she wouldn't be alive right now. _My dad and my boyfriend would kill me if they found out I died._ As bad as it looked, the helmet's functionality wasn't compromised with the black shard in it, came to show how well made her armor was. _I'll just take it out later._

After putting her helmet back on, she gave a thumbs up to the Ghost, who quickly dropped the field. The operative managed to sneak in a "Thanks!" before it did so.

When the dust settled, two Ghosts and ten men and women stood in front of large hole within a cave; all of them captivated by the sight that lie within the wall. For the wall had been hiding the impossibly large room that stretched for what seemed like miles. For the past fifty thousand years, not a single soul had walked through this memorial. This hidden reminder. For the entire facility was filled with those who had for long since have been thought to be dead. Those who now filled each and every stasis pod that filled the walls.

Those who were once known as the Protheans.

* * *

**Topic: Requisition- Modified Mark II Hazardous Environmental Exosuit Variant [C]**

**Eyes Only**

For [Redacted]

From [Redacted]

Due to the certainty of involving you and the rest of you team in possibly dangerous work, I have taken the effort of outfitting you and the rest of your team with the very best gear that money can buy. I have no clue as to what kind of conditions you may face, but my "friends" have warned me with the possibility of facing active perimeter defenses as well as the kind of dangers you would usually face in an unexplored caves. No doubt you have heard of the Hazardous Environmental Exosuits that miners on hostile worlds wear right? Well the men and woman at my company have modified twelve top-of-the line HazEEs for the most hostile possibilities that you may face. Everything from directed energy weapons, which the silver ablative coating can reflect; all the way down to having a twenty ton rock crashing on top of you, to which the advanced motor design was modified to handle. My scientists have assured me that this suit should be capable of walking through a cave full of those turian bastards without causing you harm. Still, be safe and don't get hurt mein Pumpernickel.


	10. Chapter 10: Timeline Part 2

"...We're talking twenty one-quadrillion FLOPS of processing power for each individual bot, networking algorithms which allow for advanced swarm tactics, utilizing real-time derivation and a constant analysis that can be fed to other combat droids. Remote telemetry integration for transparent access to every possible datastream and an electronic warfare suite with all kinds of defenses in place that keep the bot from being hacked.

Because 3-D warfare was so last generation, now we're talking 4-Dimensional warfare. Imagine a team of these droids analyzing, sharing data between each other and preparing for the kill before the targets even realize they're being targeted. Or just aimbotting the shit out of everything in their way during a breach and clear.

And then there is the advanced optic sensors that can detect acute eye movement when combined with the atmospheric sensors programmed for pheromone interpretation means no one will be able to tell a lie and get away with it. Then we have the duel servomotor and harmonic speed reducer drive unit actuators for generating kinetic energy equal to fighter jet engines and achieve speeds of up to 34 kilometers; finally dielectric haptics with integrated EAP micro actuators for unsurpassed motor precision.

So just if you want to leave an entire building with no one left alive you can or if you want someone alive for interrogation without turning them into a bloody pulp or crushing their skull you can do that too.

And as if that wasn't enough. each Gen-2 features the latest in energy cell technology, with a power pack that is capable of generating 20kW, twenty times more power then a peak human being. This of course provides each droid with a wide range of uses, from powering those custom-made rifles that require an alternate power source, to stunning a person upon contact with the droid. All of these internal components are of course protected by an hardened metal matrix composite chassis designed to provide unparalleled protection against radiation and physical impacts.

Mr. Harper we're not looking at one of those Cayman-Newton combat droids that might win 3 out of 10 fights against an exo-marine. We're talking warfare perfected.

This...this right here _is_ the future..."

-Chief Scientist, Shartlo Hossle (Sanctum Gen-2 Warfare Testing Facility)

* * *

Timeline

**2158**

-Before entering Alliance space, the SSV _Jon Grissom_'s Warmind completes its ninety thousandth simulation over the future state of affairs between the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council. Using the collected data, the warmind comes to a conclusion, that within the next twenty years, the Citadel and Alliance governments will go to war, resulting in an assured victory in the Citadel's favor 89,999.35 times out of 90,000 and with a subsequent forced occupation and integration into the Citadel Council. The top staff of Alliance Command is quickly debriefed on the information as well as the results of the talks on the Citadel.

-The Committee of minds repeat their own simulations and achieve the same results in a matter of days; Humanity was guaranteed to go to War with the Citadel in the next twenty years unless they applied for Citadel membership and placed themselves under their laws.

-The Director of Alliance Affairs himself meets with the Councillors of the Citadel Council. The relationship between the Council and the Alliance, following his stay at the Citadel, are neutral and forced at best. Reviewed and looked over by numerous civilian and Warminds, new laws are enacted. Meant to garner a positive appearance for the Alliance and or postpone the possibility of war, the following are agreed upon and/or implemented:

Treaty of Farixen: Humanity may only possess as many dreadnoughts as the Turians. Any more would be a violation of Galactic law and subjected to an appropriate military response. (Unknown to the Citadel Council humanity as of 2158 only had four dreadnoughts in its arsenal. It would take thirty years for the Alliance to catch up to the level of the turians and thats without including the strain on humanity's economy)

Conduct of Warfare: The Systems Alliance must follow all Citadel Conventions over warfare, such as the ban over Orbital Bombardment, to the usage of species specific weapons, an attack on an Citadel Race will be met with a military response, etc.

Travel/Work Visas: An initial wave of 200,000 Council applicants may live and work in human space, as 200,000 Alliance Applicants may live and work in Council space. Due to Humanity's reluctance and fear of aliens, no aliens may enter the Sol System without System's Alliance authorization and out of the initial wave of applicants only 200 hundred applicants will be chosen to visit (This troubles the Citadel as it throws into question what Humanity has to hide in their home-system) In response, the Citadel Council tell the Systems Alliance the same.

Spectres: Since humanity remains as an individual political entity free from Council observation, Humanity will not be eligible for their own Spectres. Unfortunately for the Spectres, their status does not gain them extra privileges or merits in Systems Alliance space, and they too will be subjected to whatever territorial laws they are in. Nevertheless, Spectres will be seen as representatives of the Council, and any laws they break will be seen as a direct action from the Council.

Relay locations/Human space: Humanity may not colonize worlds in Council Space and vice versa. All relay locations must be shared.

-Shanxi is rebuilt in record time.

**2159**

-The recently wed Hannah Shepard gives birth to a pair of twins, John and Jane, named after Michael's father and Hannah's deceased best friend. Health complications later arise post-birth with Hannah Shepard in the form of a tumor.

-The colony of Elysium is founded in the Vetus System.

-The Alliance begins funding of weapons and military technologies that were originally considered "too expensive" or "unnecessary". The following are some of the goals the Alliance hopes of achieving within the next twenty years:

Fortification of Sol System: Despite their best attempts, the Alliance knew that the Sol System was no where near secure enough to combat pirating ships hold off against a relenting and aggressive alien invasion. In response, the Alliance will attempt to militarize every colony, every planet in the Sol System. Anti-air cannons, deep-ground bunkers and Satellite Defense Grids are becoming more common place.

Completion of A.R.K project: Small technologically advanced shelters containing hundreds of occupants are to be built across the galaxy on planets not yet explored by humanity or the Citadel Race.

Kinetic Barriers: Due to the fact that every species minus Humanity has this advantage, the Alliance is currently funding projects aimed at reverse engineering the turian's shielding technology and closing the gap between the Council's soldiers and the Alliance's Exo marines.

Next-Gen Robotic Warfare: Predicted warfare simulations made by Warminds show that in an average battle, human losses will exceed that of which the Alliance can afford. Regardless of how many troops humanity throws into a fight, the Council will be able to throw more, hence the necessity for machines of war.

Relay Removal: The main form of long-distance transportation comes in the form of Mass Relays. While human spaceships do use them, humanity does not necessarily need them, unlike Council races. Unfortunately, the only way of removing them as of today is by destroying them, which would be very consequential for whatever system the relay may reside in.

And finally, Allied Relations: The Systems Alliance knows that without any friends to help them, humanity is bound to lose no matter how much of a fight they put up. By the end of the year, diplomatic envoys are sent to the Quarian Migrant fleet, Krogan homeworld, and the Hanar and Elcor embassies on the Citadel.

**2160**

-After many setbacks and unforeseen events that slowed construction, Arcturus Station is finally complete. It is officially the center of the Systems Alliance, as a sign of diplomacy, Alliance Command welcomes the Citadel Council to visit it. They do not attend, instead opting to send Council Ambassadors.

-The religious group known as "The Order" reaches a record number of three hundred million members, making it one of the quickest growing religions of modern times. Many reporters attempt to find the religion's founder and fail.

-Jack Harper purchases Cord-Hislop Aerospace*.

-Funding for Terraforming projects on Venus are cancelled, the funding heads towards creating space-stations and mining out asteroids. Many scientists are upset at watching their life work disappear.

**2161**

_-Shadowfall Protocol*_ becomes active. Sentinel STALKERS are sent throughout human space. All STALKERS have been given free reign to do what it takes to complete their shared mission. Captain David Anderson has been placed under _house arrest*_.

-Humanity's 5th dreadnought, the SSV _Henry __William*_, enters service. Built from the orbital shipyard's of Saturn, the _Henry Williams _is recognized as the flagship of the 5th fleet. Being so, the ship is immediately stationed at Arcturus along with its fleet.

-Jack Harper purchases Terra Nova Commonwealth Bank

-Co-CEO, Jacob Hargreave, of Atlas Corporation purchases Yulktobonian Biomechanics, a limb exclusive augmentation company.

**2162**

-ExoGeni Corporation, one of_ two_ interstellar companies specializing in planetary exploration and colonization, sends probes to map Mercury's surface and subsequently loses contact while mapping a "Bermuda-Triangle" like area.

-Sentinel STALKERS have been granted _emergency powers_* from the Director of Alliance Affairs. All charges against David Anderson have been dropped.

-The Director of Alliance Affairs and Citadel Councillors butt heads over controversial issues including human augmentation, usage of military specific artificial intelligence, lack of providing knowledge over advanced military technologies, and reluctance of having aliens visit the Sol System. Tensions increase.

-Current status over relations with other alien races:

Talks with the Quarian Migrant Fleet have failed. Due to Humanity's usage of A.I's and trust in Warminds, the Quarians have forbidden any on their pilgrimage from entering human space.

Diplomacy with the Krogan has completely broken down after the Systems Alliance envoy were immediately fired upon entering Tuchanka's atmosphere, and with the realization that the krogan have no form of centralized government.

The Volus' own status as a client race of the Turian Hierarchy have made them reluctant to speak with the Systems Alliance, much less do business with them.

Relations with the Hanar are accepting but not necessarily better military wise for the Systems Alliance. Hanar missionaries are very common now around human regions.

Ties with the Elcor are non-existent, as they simply do not care enough to do anything with the humans, especially after denying membership into the Council.

There is only one remaining race that the Systems Alliance has not attempted to contact yet: the Batarians.

**2163**

-Prometheus Exploratory purchases over fifty square kilometers of land on what are seemingly empty plains in Eden Prime. Their explanation behind the purpose is stated to be "...to determine whether sufficient deposits of bio-gas were present to make large-scale diggings viable." Investigating reporters notice there is very little activity going on around the purchased area.

-Jack Harper gets in contact with an high-ranking batarian. Sentinels keep watch.

-Sentinels foil an anti-matter reactor sabotage attempt by an unidentified group of salarian forces.

-For unknown reasons, pirate attacks become more and more common on the outskirts of human space. investigators determine technology to be the target in most cases.

-Coalescence Corporation and Atlas Corporation, in what appears to be a long planned takeover, takes over ninety-five percent of the mechanical augmentation market.

-The Order reaches seven-hundred million members. Journalists who have infiltrated the church for the past few years have failed to get anywhere close to discovering the founder of the Order.

* * *

Shadowfall Protocol

Ever since the discovery of the Ghosts capabilities, Sentinel Command decided that the best way of keeping the Ghosts from causing harm or panic was to keep them monitored by Sentinels at all time. This would also allow them to study them and develop counter-measures if and when they needed them.

Unfortunately since their discovery, the Ghosts had been disappearing one by one, to locations unknown.

Following the disappearance of three Ghosts, Sentinel Command had trackers placed on the suits the Ghosts use. However, they would do little to prevent the events of **2161**, in which after a series of unusual actions, the remaining twelve Ghosts suddenly disappeared. The trackers never showed them moving, no motion sensors were tripped, not even the Sentinels had noticed they had disappeared until many hours after their supposed absence.

In response, Shadowfall Protocol was enacted, Sentinels with prototype anti-Ghost countermeasures were assigned to, if possible, bring the Ghosts home. If not, remove them entirely, as they would be a liability, and in the position to attack Sentinel assets. shortly after, the Legendary Captain David Anderson was arrested as a suspect, due his relationship with the Ghosts.

SSV _Henry Williams_

The fifth dreadnought in Humanity's arsenal. It was named after Henry Williams, the Commander of the garrison on Shanxi during the Shanxi conflict. Unfortunately he was killed during a last stand, staying behind to protect an evacuation zone from the turians. He would leave a son and wife behind.

Sentinel's Emergency powers

Granted specifically by the Head of the Alliance himself, and only in times of great Sentinel's emergency powers allow them to arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial or if necessary eliminate any citizens who pose a serious threat to the safety and security of the Systems Alliance. The powers also allow them to seize property, supplies, weapons, and transportation systems without reason. And finally, take command of military assets so long as they do not conflict with the Alliance oaths.

Cord-Hislop Aerospace

Known for their top-of-the-line spaceship engine components, Cord-Hislop aerospace is currently one of the largest contracted companies by the Alliance. Following its purchase by the Billionaire Jack Harper, company stock prices sky-rocketed, making its stock some of the most valuable in the economy.

* * *

**Sneak peek:**

...He kept the scanner in his right hand pointed forward, quietly pushing a branch out of his way, and careful with his footsteps as to not make any noise as to alert his target.

Around him, three Sentinel STALKERS closed in the distance, armed with little more then PDWs and a couple of stasis grenades. The scanner in his hand beeped twice as the Ghost's signature was picked up. How the hell it could pick up a Ghost was still beyond him, the boys in the labs said something about "Quantum tunneling" and "wave particle duality", whatever the fuck that meant. The scanner beeped thrice, he knew what that meant. Reaching down to his pouch, Operative Ray took out a stasis grenade and clicked once before tossing it over the bush in front of him. Everything froze in front of him, so with another deep breath, he exo-boosted forward.

Only to be stunned at the incredible sight of what was in front of him.

His entire team was tied up to one another in a small clearing only a few feet across, and now frozen in stasis from the grenade he threw. Reaching for his weapon, Ray was surprised to find it no longer locked to the back of his exosuit. Instinctively he turned as he felt something behind him, so with a turn so quick, he was sure he was going to get whip lashed. Ray jumped in fear at what was behind him.

Gone was the black body-shaped armor he had usually seen in all the Ghosts. What stood in front of him wasn't a Ghost anymore. It was anything but. Right in front of him, stood a tall imposing figure in armor so _strange_ and _alien _but_ oddly beautiful_.

And now gone was the blue glow...replaced by a wicked, green radiance...

* * *

As always try to review, Comments? Criticisms? Praises?


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